Kathmandu, July 23

District Court, Saptari has ruled in a case that a non-custodial mother also has the responsibility to provide child support to her son.

This verdict was delivered by Saptari District Court Judge Binod Kumar Gautam in a partition of property case filed by a juvenile Nirajan Kumar Yadav against his father Hem Narayan Yadav and mother Gita Bhandari.

Defendant Gita Bhandari had argued that since she had divorced her husband without receiving any partition share of property, she was not responsible for child support. The court observed that the father of the juvenile was providing some money to the child for his studies and the mother also needs to provide Rs 1,000 per month until August 20, 2017 when he would reach 16 years of age.

The court said that it had to respect the best interest of the child as stipulated in Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was also reflected in the directive principles of the constitution. The court upheld that as per international practice non-custodial parent Gita Bhandari should also provide child support to her son.

The court also issued directives to the government to frame appropriate child support directives to bridge the gap between national and international laws.