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A legal battle between divorced NRI parents of a minor girl on Tuesday reached the Supreme Court which ordered the presence of their eight-year-old daughter in court to ascertain whether she would like to go to the US to meet her father.
The apex court said the girl's mother will ensure her presence in court on June 4 when it would take up the matter for hearing.
The girl's mother, Nandini Chaudhary, approached the apex court against a Calcutta High Court order allowing her former husband Rana Roy's plea that the child's mother should bring her to the US to meet him, at his cost.
Perusing the facts of the case, a Bench comprising Justices C K Thakker and L S Panta, said it is a case in which the "child is the sufferer".
The Bench, on being told that child was not called by the US court. "The wish of the child is also very important," the Bench said and issued notice to girl's father.
Chaudhary, who has re-married and has a child with second husband in Kolkata, alleged Roy obtained an ex-parte order from a court in the US for the girl's visit to that country.
She submitted that her former husband has also filed an application before the authorities in India for the cancellation of status of Overseas Citizen India (OCI) granted to her daughter.
Chaudhary said if during the child's visit to the US her OCI status was cancelled by Indian authorities, she (the girl) will have to stay back in America in the capacity of a US citizen.
However, Roy's counsel said Chaudhary filed the petition in a court here as the US court's order was not in her favour.