BENGALURU: The term “visitation” may soon be dropped from child custody orders in Karnataka. In an interim directive, Karnataka high court has asked all family courts and other courts hearing petitions under the Guardians and Wards Act (G&WC) to use the term “parenting time” instead, of “visitation” when referring to the time a child spends with the non-custodial parent.The direction was issued by Justice Lalitha Kanneganti while hearing a custody dispute involving a nine-year-old boy. The judge in her Sept 29 order observed, “a child should not be made to view his or her relationship with a parent through the term ‘visitation,’ which carries an unfortunate suggestion that one parent is a part of the child’s life, while the other merely comes to visit.”The case before the high court was of a father, who lives in Noida but works in Chennai, and had not seen his son for nine years.Despite this, the trial court had granted him 50% custody during the child’s vacations, apart from regular weekend access. The court questioned whether such an arrangement could be imposed without first assessing the family’s circumstances, hearing the child’s views and determining whether the proposed arrangement was practical and in the child’s best interests.The mother, who lives in Bengaluru, had approached HC challenging an Aug 7, 2026, order passed by a court in Bengaluru Rural which had granted the father access to the child every Saturday and Sunday for three to four hours between 11am and 7pm, until disposal of the petition.The father was also permitted to communicate through WhatsApp or any other device for about 30 minutes between 7.30pm and 8.30pm on alternate days, subject to prior intimation to the mother. The HC stayed the order while examining the circumstances surrounding the custody arrangement.“Calling it parenting time recognises a simple truth that no parent is a visitor in the life of a child,” Justice Kanneganti observed.
