The Allahabad High Court has granted a woman custody of her one-year-old child, rejecting the husband’s claim that she is an alcoholic and unfit to care for the child. The couple live separately. A single bench of Justice Sandeep Jain, in its April 30 order, observed that nutritional, emotional, and developmental needs of a child, in the formative years, can best be met by the mother. “… While the father plays an essential role in the child’s upbringing, it is the mother who, by reason of biological and nurturing considerations, is ordinarily best positioned to secure the physical and emotional welfare of the minor,” it observed. “It is well-established that, ordinarily, the custody of a minor who has not attained the age of five years is entrusted to the mother,” the court further observed. The petition was filed by the woman seeking custody of her son. Her husband, a police constable posted in Jaunpur, had allegedly forcibly taken away her son from her in August last year.…