The Madras High Court has denied a woman from Ooty custody of her two minor children, citing her admitted conduct of sending “nude and semi-nude photographs” to another man and having “late-night calls and video calls” with him before she separated from her husband.
“The minors in question are at an impressionable age if their custody is handed over to the appellant mother, considering her admitted conduct, they would grow up without understanding the difference between what is morally and ethically correct,” the High Court said.
He then also found nude and semi-nude pictures on her phone that she had shared with other men and that she had made late-night video calls to several people. He dropped her at her parents’ home six days later, ending their cohabitation. The children, however, continued to stay with the father. She then moved the Madras High Court in appeal. She urged the Court to grant her custody of her children, saying they needed maternal care and that she had not seen her children for six months. The High Court noted that the family court had examined the woman herself as a witness and she had admitted the fact about her pictures.
The husband told the Court that in February 2023, almost eight years after their marriage, he discovered a text to another man expressing her love to him. The woman filed a guardian petition seeking custody of the children, which the Family Court at Udhagamandalam dismissed on August 29, 2025.
“Unfortunately, the appellant before us has failed to remember her duty and status as a mother and that it is the mother who inculcates good behaviour to the children right from the time she breastfeeds her child,” the High Court said, while upholding an order of the local family court that had denied the woman custody of her two children. She told the High Court that she was “educated” and of “sterling character” and that a misunderstanding between her and her husband had led to them living separately. The husband, meanwhile, told the Court that the woman had “scant regard for the well being of her children. He said she would often feed them “junk food” and force them to go to bed early so she could talk to other men on the phone at night.
