New Delhi: A court in Germany's Pankow has rejected the plea of the parents of an Indian child who is in Germany’s child welfare custody, ruling that the 28-month-old be handed over to Jugendamt, the German youth services.

The court, in two verdicts delivered on June 13, also turned down the plea of the petitioners that their child be returned to the Indian Welfare Services, a third party. Instead, it said that “the parents are no longer authorised to decide on the whereabouts of their child”, according to the Indian Express.

The child’s parents, a Gujarati couple who had moved to Germany in 2018, had been fighting for custody of the baby girl for the last 21 months. The German authorities took over the custody of the child and placed her in foster care on September 23, 2021, after the child suffered an accidental injury. The child at the time was seven months old. The authorities in Germany alleged that the child’s parents had harassed her.

The court made it clear that the Central Youth Welfare Office of Berlin, which has been appointed as the provisional guardian of the child, shall decide on the whereabouts of the child. It relied on two injuries that the child had suffered – a head and back injury in April 2021 that happened while she was being bathed and a genital injury in September 2021 – to rule that the child will not be given to its biological parents or the Indian Welfare Services. The petitioners had appealed to the court that the Indian Welfare Services be given custody of the child in the case of them not getting her back.

In denying the custody to parents, the court noted that the child custody is denied to them so as to “avert the existing danger to the child”. It also noted that it had come to the conviction “that the mother and/or father (had) intentionally caused the serious genital injuries of the child” and that the parents were unable to “explain the events in question in a sufficiently consistent manner”, the Indian Express report said.

The couple has been making repeated efforts through India's Ministry of External Affairs to get custody of their child. The MEA had noted that the child’s continued placement in German foster care amounts to an “infringement of her social, cultural and linguistic rights” and it was a matter of deep concern to the government of India and the parents. However, there has been no change in the situation.

Even 52 Indian MPs from 19 political parties – including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Left, among others – urged in a joint letter to the German ambassador in India to do everything possible from his side to ensure the return of an Indian child who has been placed in Germany’s child welfare custody from 2021 at the earliest.

In the letter addressed to the German envoy in India, Philipp Ackerman, both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs had said it is important to bring back the child to India, “her own country, people, culture and environment”. They had also noted that “any delay will cause irreparable harm to the baby”.

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