5.4 Child Custody

Parental authority — equal: during the marriage both parents jointly hold the decisions-and- care power (residence, education, health, religion, the child's property) — the patriarchal paramountcy (father-as-owner) abolished; Custody on separation/divorce: the court allocates custody in the divorce decree (Unit 4) — the best-interest principle governs (Children's Act 2075; CRC Article 3): the child's age and attachment, each parent's capacity and conduct, stability and continuity, siblings kept together where possible, the child's own view at discernment; Statutory disqualifications: the abusive, neglectful or incapacitated parent; conviction for offences against the child; Access and visitation: the non-custodial parent's contact protected — access, not alienation; the revisability of custody orders on changed circumstances; Third-party custody: grandparents and relatives; the alternative-care machinery of the Children's Act (kinship care, foster care, regulated child-care homes); The habeas corpus route: parental abduction cases — the writ's technicality vs. the child's welfare: the Supreme Court's practice of deciding the child's placement on welfare grounds, not merely the custody formality (the FWLD-documented jurisprudence line: Harikrishna Subedi v. Shrijaya Karki, NKP 2076, D.N. 10391 — habeas not issuable against the mother's holding; Naryan Prasad Tharu v. Harendra Kumar Chaudhari, NKP 2076, D.N. 10394 — the recent custody rulings' line; read the reports for facts and holdings).