Whenever a question arises before a court pertaining to the custody of a minor child, the matter is to be decided not on considerations of the legal rights of parties but on the sole and predominant criterion of what would best serve the interest and welfare of the minor. The worst affected in proceedings of divorce and family breakdowns are the children. Maintaining the central importance of the welfare of the child in proceedings of custody will help ensure that the child\’s future is safe and protected, regardless of changing familial circumstances.
The Supreme Court has said that the welfare of a child is not to be measured merely by money or physical comfort, but the word welfare must be taken in its widest sense that the tie of affection cannot be disregarded. Over the years, the non- negotiable principle on the basis of which cases of custody of children are decided is that of the \’best interest and welfare of the child\’ which attempts to enable each child to survive and reach his or her full potential.
Parents who are divorcing are left guessing as to how the courts will make custody decisions; this can lead to unnecessary pre-court bargaining that may be harmful to both the child and the parents. The best interest of the child standard primarily focuses on the predicaments of the child alone and does not take into consideration the feelings and interests of the parents. The parents are also actors within the family who have rights and any legal framework must account for their welfare as well.
The face of child custody arrangements is changing. A number of countries across the globe have adopted a preference for shared parenting systems over sole custody as a post-divorce arrangement with respect to children. In the West, this trend has arisen largely in response to changing familial roles (male care takers taking on more child rearing responsibilities) as well psychological studies revealing that the involvement of both parents in child rearing is preferable to sole custody arrangements.
