Bansa & Tandel [2025] FedCFamC1F 911 (12 December 2025)

1. The mother is at liberty to provide the document referred to in Order 1 to the Indian Consulate, VFS Global, or such other authority which may be necessary to cause and/or permit a Surrender Certificate or OCI Document to be issued for the child.

Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court's records.

Note: This copy of the Court's Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).

Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish an account of proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under the pseudonym Bansa & Tandel has been approved pursuant to subsection 114Q(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

1. By an Application in a Proceeding filed on 19 November 2025, the applicant mother seeks the following orders:
   1. That within fourteen (14) days of the date of these Orders, the father [Mr Tandel] born [in] 1984 must provide to the solicitor for the mother [Ms Bansa] born [in] 1989 a copy of a notarised letter signed by the father which clearly states:

a. The names and dates of birth of the parties and the child;

1. That the father has no objection to the surrender of the Indian Passport held by the child [X] born [in] 2016; and

2. That the father has no objection to the renunciation of [X's] Indian Citizenship.

3. The mother is at liberty to provide the document referred to in Order 1 to the Indian Consulate, VFS Global, or such other authority which may be necessary to cause and/ or permit a Surrender Certificate or OCI Document to be issued for the child.

1. The mother has sworn an affidavit in support of the application, as has the respondent father in opposition to those orders.
2. The Independent Children's Lawyer supports the making of the orders.
3. The need for the orders comes about in this way.
4. The child was born in 2016. Final parenting orders were made by consent on 10 February 2025. The orders provided for the child to live with the mother, who has sole decision-making responsibility for him. The orders also permit the mother to relocate to India with the child.
5. The child is an Australian citizen, and as such he requires a visa to visit India. In order to live in India permanently, he is required to obtain what is known as an "Overseas Citizenship of India" status ("OCI").
6. Earlier this year, orders were made requiring the father to provide a copy of his passport to the mother, so as to facilitate an application for the child's OCI status. In order to obtain that status, it now appears that the child must renounce both his Indian and Australian citizenships.
7. The mother has made the application but received the following advice from the Indian Consulate on 10 September 2025:

We cannot accept the Surrender Application unless the father comes and gives consent or gives a notarised copy of a letter that says he has no objection to the surrender of [the child's] Indian passport and the same for the OCI.

(Mother's affidavit filed 19 November 2025, paragraph 19)

1. It appears that at least the consulate does not recognise the Australian divorce or parenting orders, as the parties were married in India under the Hindu Marriage Act.
2. The father has refused to cooperate.
3. The particular difficulty for the mother is that she is living in Australia on a Bridging Visa which is a temporary visa. It can be cancelled on 28 days notice. Whilst it is her present intention to remain in Australia permanently, she will have no choice but to return to India if her visa is cancelled.
4. There is a possibility that if the child does not have the appropriate status, he may not be able to return to India or to remain there permanently with the mother.
5. The present orders of the court recognise that it is in the child's best interests to live with the mother and spend very limited time with the father. It would therefore not be in the child's best interests for him not to be able to live in India with the mother, should her Australian visa be cancelled.
6. The mother and the Independent Children's Lawyer contended that s 64B(2)(i) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) empowered the making of the order. That subsection provides that a parenting order may deal with any aspect of the care, welfare or development of the child, or any other aspect of parental responsibility for a child.
7. With whom a child lives, and where a child lives, are important parenting orders. Once that is determined, appropriate ancillary orders can be made under this section to facilitate or to ensure that those orders are given effect.
8. The present position is that the child's best interests are to live with the mother in either India or Australia. She may not have the choice in returning to India, and if she has to then the child should be placed in a position of being able to go with her, that being in his best interests. It could hardly be in his best interests to be left behind and the circumstances for his care to presumably be picked up by the father.
9. Although the father, in his supporting affidavit, submitted that the court had no jurisdiction to make the order, his counsel who appeared for him conceded that it does. Of course, jurisdiction cannot be acquired merely by consent, but I am satisfied in the circumstances, for the reasons given, that there is both jurisdiction and power to make the order.
10. Counsel for the father submitted that it was inappropriate for the father to be required to write a letter saying he has no objection to the surrender, when he in fact does have one. There is some force in that submission, but the difficulty can be ameliorated by amending the order slightly so that he is required to consent to the surrender.
11. There will be orders to that effect.

I certify that the preceding nineteen (19) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of the Honourable Justice Aldridge.