Karisma: Relief

New Delhi, Sept. 27: Actor Karisma Kapoor and estranged husband Sanjay Kapur today arrived at a limited settlement before Delhi High Court on the matter of their six-month-old daughter Samaira’s passport.

Sanjay filed an affidavit saying he is ready to sign the passport application while Karisma gave it in writing that she would let him.

The couple said they were making “progress” on other matrimonial issues, too.

At this, the court disposed of Sanjay’s petition seeking to restrain his wife from going abroad with Samaira on the ground that the passport had been obtained illegally and without his consent.

Justice Mukul Mudgal also vacated the interim order of August 5 restraining Karisma from taking her daughter to the US.

The court asked Sanjay to file within two weeks an affidavit before the regional passport office, Mumbai, asking it to let him sign the child’s passport application. At this point, the Centre’s standing counsel, Kailash Gambhir, argued that this would open the floodgates for similar applications.

The court said the order will not be treated as a precedent.

Lawyers of both sides then thanked the judge, who had repeatedly advised the couple to resolve their differences keeping in mind the welfare of their child.

“Their relationship is much better than before they came to the court,” Mahesh Jethmalani, representing Karisma along with Arvind Nigam and Raian Karanjiwala, told the court. Sanjay was represented by Ashok Desai and Manali Singhal.

Karisma had obtained a passport for Samaira by herself, saying she could not possibly get her husband to sign the application as she was separated from him and staying alone in Mumbai. Under new rules, either parent can apply for the passport of a minor. Sanjay approached the high court on August 5.

Karisma then filed an affidavit accusing Sanjay of being an “estranged” and “disgruntled” husband who was using their child as a “pawn” to settle matrimonial issues. She alleged that Sanjay had contributed nothing to the upbringing of the child.

Sanjay accused Karisma of not returning to her matrimonial home and unfairly depriving him and Samaira of each other’s affection and company. He claimed he had been bearing a significant part of her expenses but as she now lived in Mumbai, he could not be expected to pay her bills there, too.