LUCKNOW, Jan. 24 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ruled that before issuing a direction to send a child to boarding school amid custody battle between parents, psychologically evaluating the child is necessary to ascertain whether such child can handle the separation from the parent he/she has been living with. A division bench of chief justice Arun Bhansali and justice Jaspreet Singh observed this in a 52-page judgement passed jointly on January 21 on a special appeal filed by a father and a special appeal moved by a child through his mother in a matter for custody and visitation of a seven-year-old minor son between warring parents. The HC said, "The court has to ensure that in a legal battle between the conflicting couple, the child is not used as a weapon nor is he victimized. Sending a child to a boarding school cannot be an answer in black and white. It is necessary to psychologically evaluate the child to assess as to whether it is necessary to remove the child from the custody of his mother and put him in a boarding school. How the child will react is an important aspect to be considered before taking such a decision. " Observing that a petition under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, filed by the father was pending before the trial court, the court refrained from changing the custody of the child from the mother to the father. On the aspect of moving the child to the boarding school, the court held that there was no report or opinion on record to show that the child could handle the emotional strain of being physically away from the mother by being put in boarding school. Accordingly, the court held that such an issue would be open to be decided by the family court, Lucknow. if reports of experts are placed before it. Noting that the first order for visitation was sufficient and detailed, the court observed that it hoped that the parties treated the interest of the child paramount and adhered to the orders passed by the court. The mother and father were married in 2017, and had the son in 2018. Due to bitterness in relations, they separated and initiated multiple proceedings against each other. The mother moved from Dhanbad (Jharkhand) to Lucknow with her son. It was alleged by the mother that on the pretext of taking the son out for a drive in Lucknow, the father took the son out of the protective custody of the mother, to Dhanbad....