The Supreme Court has directed the Central government to take urgent steps to bring back to India a young boy who was taken to Russia by his Russian mother even though the child had been placed in the Court's own custody, Bar and Bench reported. In an order passed on November 3, a Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu took serious exception to the conduct of the mother, Russian national Viktoriia Basu, who allegedly left India through Nepal with her son and travelled to Russia.

Source: Bar and Bench

"We are not going to leave this. Our dignity is at stake. After we had taken the child into our custody, the mother, with the help of the Russian Embassy, went away through Nepal. We feel the Russian Federation is aware of it. You (Centre) have to throw all your weight behind this," the Court orally remarked, according to Bar and Bench. The alleged role of embassy officials is a matter the Court flagged during the hearing; it has expressed no final view on the allegations or on custody.

The case, Viktoriia Basu v. State of West Bengal, began in 2023 when Basu, a Russian national residing in India since 2019, approached the Supreme Court under Article 32 seeking a writ of habeas corpus for the production and custody of her son, born in 2020, from her estranged husband Saikat Basu.

On May 22, 2025, the Court formalised a shared custody arrangement under which the child was to remain in the mother's exclusive custody for three days a week and with the father for the remaining four days. On August 1, 2025, the Court clarified that the child was, for all practical purposes, in its custody, and that it was exercising jurisdiction as parens patriae while regulating custody between the parents.

The Court was later told that the mother had left India with the child. On July 17, 2025, it directed the authorities to trace her immediately and restore custody of the child to the father, and cautioned that the law would take its course if Russian Embassy officials were found involved in any offence. On September 26, 2025, the Court was informed that Interpol had issued a Blue Corner Notice against Viktoriia Basu and a Yellow Corner Notice in the child's name, Law Chakra reported.

Source: Law Chakra

At the November 3 hearing, the Bench rejected the suggestion emerging from diplomatic exchanges that a video call between the child in Russia and the father in India would be enough. "No video call business will do," the Court said, seeking the assistance of the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and all Additional Solicitors General to have the boy returned and produced before it.

The Court has posted the matter for further hearing after a month, when it will review the progress made by diplomatic channels.