LAHORE: In a ruling highlighting the importance of a child’s welfare and intelligent preference, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has set aside the orders of two subordinate courts and allowed adoptive parents to retain custody of a 13-year-old minor boy.

Justice Faisal Zaman Khan observed that the lower courts erred in law by ignoring the unequivocal desire of the minor to continue living with the petitioners (foster parents), who he has known as his family for nearly his entire life.

Sayed Arshad Shah and his wife filed a petition before the LHC against the minor’s biological parents and the orders of the lower courts. The minor, Sayed Wafa Abbas, is now about 13 years old.

According to the admitted facts of the case, the minor’s biological parents had handed over his custody to the petitioners, who are closely related (biological and foster fathers are real brothers), either at birth or when he was six months old.

Judge sets aside orders of two subordinate courts after interviewing the minor to weigh his mental state and intelligent preference

The adoptive parents raised the child for approximately nine long years before the biological parents filed an application seeking his custody in 2022.

A guardian court initially granted custody of the minor to the biological parents in a decision that was later upheld by an additional district and sessions judge in 2023.

The petitioners contended that the minor was fully adjusted with them, considering them to be his real parents and that handing over his custody to biological parents at this belated stage was unjustified.

Justice Khan, in his judgment, focuses on the principle that the welfare of the minor is the paramount consideration in custody disputes.

To determine the child’s welfare, the judge personally interviewed Sayed Wafa Abbas on Nov 29, 2025, to weigh his mental state and intelligent preference.

The minor demonstrated his maturity by ably answering the questions and expressed, in clear and unequivocal terms, his desire and willingness to reside with the adoptive parents.

The judge noted that the minor has been living with the petitioners’ family, which includes six sisters and a brother, for 13 years, treating them as his actual family.

The judge observed that removing the minor from the home he has always known would subject him to trauma and shock and severely disrupt a life to which he is completely adjusted.

Justice Khan highlighted that the lower courts, in their orders, had noted the minor’s preference to live with the actual parents but had deliberately ignored the voice of the minor without assigning any reason.

The judge observed that the lower courts also ignored another aspect that the actual father of the minor has married multiple times, and has 13 children out of three marriages.

He said the courts in the impugned orders failed to comprehend whether it would be safe to send the minor to such a big family who are all alien to him as compared to the petitioners.

Based on the evidence and the minor’s clear statement, the judge ruled that the welfare of the child lies with the adoptive parents.

He allowed the writ petition, set aside the judgments of the lower courts and consequently dismissed the custody application filed by the biological parents.

While dismissing the plea, the judge maintained the biological parents’ right to visitation, stating that they are at liberty to approach the family/guardian court for chalking out a plan for meeting with the minor.

The judgment came after the biological parents had refused a proposal from the LHC to establish a meeting schedule to help the minor familiarise with them before reapplying for custody.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2025