India, May 29 -- The Bombay high court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over a lower court's decision to reject a man's application for the interim custody of his 18-month-old child due to a medical emergency.

The child is scheduled to undergo an open-heart surgery at a hospital in Aurangabad, where his father lives, in the first week of June. However, the boy's custody is currently with his mother, who is estranged from her husband and lives in Beed, around 200 km away from Aurangabad, according to the father's petition.

Considering the seriousness of the case, the high court directed the mother to temporarily hand over the child's custody to his father so that the surgery could be conducted. "The child will be in custody of the father...