Ahmedabad: A 38-year-old widow from Kutch has moved the Gujarat High Court seeking custody of her six minor children, aged between three and 14 years, from her own eldest daughter and son-in-law.The woman has filed a habeas corpus petition through advocate A A Zabuawala after a magisterial court in Mundra earlier this year declined to grant her custody. The High Court has issued notices to the eldest daughter (22), the son-in-law and the concerned authorities, seeking their replies by Sep 8.According to the petition, the woman, a resident of Dhrab village in Mundra taluka, has one daughter from her first marriage and six children—two sons and four daughters—from her second marriage. The petition says relations with the eldest daughter became strained in 2023 after she eloped, married her boyfriend and began living separately.It further states that after the woman’s second husband died on June 6, 2025, the daughter reconciled with her mother and invited her to live with her and her husband, but the relationship again deteriorated within months.The petition alleges financial wrongdoing, stating, “Taking undue advantage of the petitioner’s (mother’s) trust and vulnerable condition following the death of her husband, respondent no. 7 (daughter) deceitfully gained control over the petitioner’s bank accounts and, without her free and informed consent, withdrew and misappropriated the entire amount lying therein, aggregating to approximately Rs 15,00,000.”The woman has claimed she later left her daughter’s house but was not allowed to take her six children. She has alleged that her daughter and son-in-law refused to return them.Court records cited in the petition show that she approached the JMFC court in Mundra in Dec 2025, seeking custody and issuance of a search warrant under Section 97 of the CrPC. The application was rejected in Jan this year.The magisterial court noted that the children were not being forcibly detained and recorded that when they were produced, they told the court they were willingly living with their sister.In the High Court, the woman’s counsel has argued that she is the natural guardian and entitled to custody, while also challenging the Mundra court’s conclusion, pointing out that the youngest child is three years old and could not have meaningfully expressed a preference on where she wished to live.
