General
The law regarding the custody of child is same under the law irrespective of the caste or community he is born in. Broadly speaking, the foremost law is that welfare of the child is supreme and cannot be compromised on nay account. The underlying jurisprudence is that no individual is born with a religion but into a religion, which, to put it differently, means that one is born among the people subscribing to one religious faith or the other, and is in no position to adopt a religion of his own accord. Therefore, it would not be reasonable to allow any particular personal law to govern the custody of a child when the child itself is not capable of choosing his or her religion. Thus, the welfare of the child is of paramount importance in the eyes of law. Perhaps this was the line of reasoning Allahabad High Court adopted when in a case in 1951 it awarded the custody of an abandoned child to the couple that was best suited to bring up the child in the circumstances most conducive to the development of the child abandoned by her mother in a government hospital after the delivery. The hospital record showed the woman as a Muslim, though the address was found to be fake.A Muslim couple staked their claim for adoption primarily on grounds of religion. The Court rejected the contention and while giving the child to a well to do, educated Hindu couple the Court made it clear that if the child was not taken good care of, the court would change its decision in the interest of the child.