Lucknow, The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has ruled that a mother and father are natural parents of a child and has ordered to hand over the custody of a nine-year-old boy to his father.

The boy had been staying with his maternal grandparents since he was four-month-old after his mother died.

A single-judge bench of Justice Sri Prakash Singh ordered the grandparents to hand over custody of the child, Vinayak Tripathi, to his father Deepak Kumar Tripathi on October 20 at his residence in Kushinagar district.

The court observed that parents are natural guardians of children and no one can replace them.

The court also ordered that the maternal grandparents could meet the child for the next four months on every Sunday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at his father's residence.

Vinayak Tripathi was born on October 31, 2013. In a mishap, his mother sustained burn injuries. She underwent medical treatment in a hospital for several months but later succumbed to her injuries.

Deepak Tripathi fulfilled all his responsibilities and attended his wife throughout the treatment.

During the course of treatment, the maternal grandparents took Vinayak away so that he could be taken care of properly.

Deepak married a widow on March 4, 2015 with the consent of his in-laws. From his second wife, he has two children.

During this period, Deepak made several efforts to get back his son but to no avail.

As a last resort, he approached the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

The court observed that the maternal grandparents were old and it would be very hard for them to take care of a minor child. The petitioner, the father, is a natural guardian and having family assistance can look after the child in a better way.

It also observed that the petitioner (father) was in a better position financially also to take care of the child as he was a reputed teacher and was drawing a handsome salary.

The court further observed that conduct and behaviour of the petitioner in society was also good and so there was no reason why he should not get custody of his child.