PRAYAGRAJ, May 2 -- A division bench of the Allahabad high court has set aside a single-judge ruling that a father has the right to transfer custody of a minor child to "any person".

Allowing an appeal filed by the child's mother, a bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra said, "The observation that the father has the right to transfer de facto custody of a minor child to any person is against all cannons of law and morality and the same therefore required to be set aside."

The appeal challenged a single-judge order passed in a habeas corpus petition, which had dismissed the mother's plea seeking custody of her two children.

In her petition, the mother alleged that her sons-Yuvaraj (6) and Ayushman (...