6 judgments
A QR-verifiable CFMS copy did not satisfy the certified-copy rule in a guardian appeal
Sadam Hussain v. Mst. Shahneela and others
Issue: Does a digital copy of a Family Court order downloaded from the court's Case Flow Management System (CFMS), verifiable by QR code,…
Held: No. Rule 22(3) of the Family Court Rules 1965 expressly requires a certified copy, and a CFMS copy does not meet it even though it can be authenticated by QR code. But because the appellate court did not object at…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973r.22(1), Family Courts Rules 1965r.22(3), Family Courts Rules 1965s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
Structured overnight visitation: a practical Sindh High Court model
Aijaz-ur-Rehman v. Mst. Naila and others
Issue: What contact should a father have with a seven-to-eight-year-old daughter in her mother's custody, where the courts below allowed only two three-hour…
Held: Drawing on the eleven conditions in Madiha Younus v. Imran Ahmed (2018 SCMR 1991), so far as the mother agreed, the Court kept custody with the mother but gave the father an overnight stay on the first Saturday of every…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.10, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.7, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A father who already has the children can still ask to be declared their guardian
Fareha v. Asad Bashir etc.
Issue: Can a father, as natural guardian with physical custody of his four daughters, petition under section 7 of the Guardians and Wards…
Held: Yes. Section 7 speaks of both appointing and declaring a guardian, recognising that a person may already be guardian in law yet seek formal affirmation; section 19(b) limits the court's power but does not bar a natural guardian from applying.…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.19, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.7, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A former aunt by marriage cannot keep a child from the real mother
Mst. Nayyab Abbas v. Additional District Judge, etc.
Issue: Can a woman who raised a child under an 'adoption deed' made in favour of her then husband, the child's uncle, keep…
Held: No. The father had handed the child to the uncle under an 'adoption deed' of 7 November 2020 without the mother's consent, and the deed was in the uncle's favour alone; the uncle, now divorced from the petitioner, conceded the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
Parents who lent a child to relatives can take her back
Nazir Ahmad etc. v. The learned Additional District Judge, Kasur etc.
Issue: Can a maternal uncle and aunt who were given temporary custody of one of twin girls, on condition that they return her…
Held: No. The parents' status as the girl's real parents was admitted, and admitted facts need no proof. However good the care the uncle and aunt provided, adoptive carers are not a substitute for the parents, and the welfare of the…
Art. 199, Constitution of Pakistan 1973s.17, Guardians and Wards Act 1890s.25, Guardians and Wards Act 1890
A child ‘adopted’ at birth goes back to the real mother; the court asks for an adoption law
Erum Shahzadi & another v. Additional District Judge, Sialkot & 4 others
Issue: Can relatives who took a newborn on the day of his birth and registered him as their own son keep him against…
Held: No. Adoption is permitted in Islamic law, but the real parents have a preferential right to custody unless the child's welfare demands otherwise, and there was no justification for this adoption beyond the relatives' wish for a son. No written…