Delhi High Court has ordered the formation of guidelines for shared parenting amid rising parental alienation cases. The Court has allowed petitioners in a PIL to submit a detailed representation for Child Access, Custody Guidelines, and a Parenting Plan.
In a significant development for child rights and family law, the Delhi High Court has permitted the petitioners in a public interest litigation (PIL) to submit a detailed representation regarding the formulation of Child Access and Custody Guidelines along with a Parenting Plan.
The matter was heard before the Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia on February 4, 2026, in W.P.(C) 1565/2026 along with connected applications CM Appl. 7595/2026 and CM Appl. 7596/2026.
The petitioners, Ayushman Initiative for Child Rights & Anr., represented by Mr. Manav Gupta along with a team of advocates, highlighted that similar guidelines have already been framed by the High Court of Calcutta and the High Court of Karnataka.
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The submission referred to an interim order passed by the High Court of Karnataka in W.P.(C) 24650/2023.
The Court observed,
“Having gone through the averments made in the writ petition and the documents enclosed therewith, we find it appropriate to permit the petitioners to approach this Court on the Administrative Side through Registrar General of this Court by way of making an exhaustive representation enclosing all the documents, which have been relied upon in this writ petition. Such representation shall be made within fortnight.”
Further, the Court directed,
“On receipt of such representation, the Registrar General of this Court shall place the matter before the appropriate Committee/authority, which shall take a decision in terms of the prayers made in this writ petition for formulating such policy in consultation with the stakeholders.”
With these directions, the High Court disposed of the writ petition along with the pending applications.
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The development is seen as a positive step towards creating structured and child-centric guidelines for custody and parenting arrangements in India.
Advocates and child rights organisations can now formally submit comprehensive proposals to the Delhi High Court for consideration.
Speaking on the development, Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, Director of Ekam Nyaay Foundation, and Arijit Mitra, Founder of AIFCR, stated,
“In recent past a growing concern in the society is the increasing number of divorces amongst couples leading to acrimonious fights for the custody of children who are caught in between bitter fights amongst their parents and are more often than not used as pawns and eventually lose one of the parents as an outcome of this bitter struggle. Many children suffer from mental agony and alienation as a result of such fights. With such a rise in divorce and custody cases in the country including the capital city Delhi, we decided to file this PIL seeking uniform guidelines. We are thankful to honourable Judges for giving us a patient hearing and paving a way for formulation of these guidelines. These guidelines will give a direction to parents also on the importance of shared parenting.”
The order being pronounced on February 4, 2026.
Case Title: Ayushman Initiative for Child Rights & Anr. vs. High Court of Delhi & Ors., W.P.(C) 1565/2026
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