Emily Rayner in DE (A Child: Inward Return Order From India), Re [2026] EWHC 1099 (Fam)
11th May 2026 | Cases
Emily Rayner was instructed by RWK Goodman Solicitors for the Applicant mother in DE (A Child: Inward Return Order From India), Re [2026] EWHC 1099 (Fam); an application by a mother seeking the return of her daughter from India.
DE (A Child: Inward Return Order From India), Re [2026] EWHC 1099 (Fam) concerned an application by the mother for her one-year-old daughter, DE, to be made a ward of court and returned from India to England and Wales. DE was born in England but she and both parents are Indian nationals. The mother alleged that the father had abducted DE at an airport in India in March 2025, coerced her into signing divorce papers, and thereafter prevented meaningful contact. The father denied the allegations, asserting that the mother had abandoned DE.
The court found the mother to be a honest witness and the father to be wholly unreliable. It found that the father had abducted DE, coerced the mother, obstructed contact, and perpetrated serious domestic abuse.
The court had previously found it had jurisdiction and at this hearing determined England and Wales was the correct forum. In its welfare evaluation, the court found that DE had suffered emotional harm through abduction and separation from her mother and remained at risk in the father’s care. The court ordered that DE remain a ward of court and be urgently returned to England and Wales within six weeks.
