The Supreme Court has directed an NRI mother, who had illegally brought her 6-year-old son to India without informing his father in the US, to appear before the US court along with the child within 15 days.

Till then the child, Aditya, will remain in the custody of his mother, Vijaysree Voora, the court ruled.

A bench comprising Justice Tarun Chatterjee and R M Lodha issued the directions on the petition filed by the father of the child Ravi Chandran, an NRI.

Mr Chandran approached the apex court seeking directions to the CBI to trace the mother after State Police of Tamil Nadu, UP, Chandigarh and Delhi had failed to find them.

Finally, they were located by Chennai Police and produced before the apex court last week.

The court in its judgement, however, made it clear that if the woman failed to produce the child before the US court within 15 days the child custody will be handed over to his father and the mother will be debarred from approaching the court for redressal.

UNI