From rxpgnews.com
Court stays order against HIV positive woman
By IANS,
Sep 28, 2007 - 2:16:58 PM
Jaipur, Sep 28 - A sessions court here Friday stayed the order of a lower court that denied an HIV positive woman custody of her minor daughter.
Married to a soldier in 1995 from whom she allegedly contracted the disease, the woman was thrown out of her home by her in-laws after her husband died in 2003 and her daughter was taken away.
Widowed and ostracized by the community, the mother then approached the court for custody of her 11-year-old child.
On Sep 17, a first class magistrate's court in an order denied her custody of the child on the grounds that she was HIV positive, observing that it would not be appropriate.
'As the woman herself is HIV positive she will not be able to look after her daughter, and it is also not in the latter's interest and welfare,' the lower court observed.
'The young girl also does not have any problems living with her grandparents,' the order said.
'The sessions court today after hearing our petition stayed the order. It has fixed the next hearing on Oct 11 when it will go into the custody issue,' Ajay Kumar Jain, the mother's lawyer, told IANS.
The lower court in its order had also said that the name of the mother could be disclosed. The order violated an apex court judgement of 1999 saying that the identity of HIV positive people should not be disclosed.
A rights organisation had taken up the cause of the mother.
'The order of the lower court was discriminatory against an HIV positive woman and also against the law of equality,' said an activist of Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties - who did not want to be named.
'The woman was being ostracized by her in-laws and being treated as an untouchable,' the activist said.
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