The Supreme Court has referred Prasanna Sankar and Dhivya Sashidhar’s high-profile marital dispute for mediation. The case gained attention after Sankar’s viral tweets alleging harassment and custody conflict.
New Delhi: On Friday, the Supreme Court of India sent the matrimonial dispute between Prasanna Sankar, co-founder of tech company Rippling, and his wife Dhivya Sashidhar for mediation.
The Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal appointed retired Madras High Court judge, Justice N Kirubakaran, to act as the mediator.
The Court has asked him to help both parties talk and try to find a peaceful solution to the issues between them.
The Court also said that the mediation will take place on May 15 in Chennai, as both husband and wife are now living in Chennai.
This case has drawn public attention after a thread on X (formerly Twitter) posted by Prasanna Sankar in March went viral. In his tweets, Sankar said that his wife had filed false cases against him with the intention of kidnapping their son and taking him out of the country.
He claimed that the Tamil Nadu police were troubling him constantly because of a fake kidnapping complaint made by his wife.
He said,
“The Tamil Nadu police were continuously harassing him and trying to take his son away from him owing to a false kidnapping complaint filed by his wife.”
Due to this situation, Sankar approached the Madras High Court and alleged that the harassment he was facing was due to a false and harmful complaint by his wife. He also said that she had earlier filed similar false criminal complaints in the United States and Singapore.
As per the petition filed by Sankar, both husband and wife had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in February this year.
The MoU stated that both of them would take a divorce with mutual consent and would share joint custody of their child.
It also mentioned that the family would live in Chennai and the travel documents of their child would be kept in a joint locker.
Sankar mentioned that his wife had come to Chennai with their son after the MoU was signed and had handed over the child to him willingly on March 3. But later, she filed a false police complaint against him.
He also accused her of breaking the terms of the MoU by not keeping their child’s travel papers in the joint locker as promised.
On the other side, Sashidhar denied all the accusations made by her husband. She said that she filed the kidnapping complaint only so she could know where her son was. According to her, it was not a false complaint but was done with concern for the child.
The Madras High Court had looked into Sankar’s plea and, on March 27, gave instructions to the police. It said that while investigating, police must not harass any person. After this, the High Court disposed of the matter.
Later, Sashidhar moved the Supreme Court by filing a Habeas Corpus petition. In this, she alleged that her privacy was violated and that her minor son was being kept illegally by her husband. She also accused him of putting her personal contact details online.
She said,
“She has not been able to meet the child for the last two months and sought direction to immediately restore physical and virtual access between the mother and child.”
She further added that even after making several complaints, the statutory bodies under the Ministry of Women and Child Development did not take any action.
She also claimed that her 9-year-old son had been wrongly influenced by his father and was made to believe that his mother had left him.
It was also told to the Court that the Tamil Nadu police had issued an official advisory on April 25. This advisory denied the claims made by Prasanna Sankar that the police had asked him for money to release his staff member, Gokul Krishnan.
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After hearing both sides, the Supreme Court decided to refer the matter for mediation. The aim is to settle the issue peacefully and in the best interest of the child.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Dhivya Sashidhar along with advocates Shivika Mehra, Riddhi Jad, Anupriya Srivastava, Ketan Paul, Kiran Gaur, and Sumedha Ray Sarkar.
Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra represented Prasanna Sankar with advocates Aadarsh Kothari, Shivani Luthra Lohiya, Anuj Singh, Rishabh Dahiya, and Shagufa Salim.
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