In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, two young children in India have filed a civil suit against their Canadian mother demanding that she love and care for them.

"It’s the first case, not only in India but also in the world as well, where a court is being asked by children to direct a mother to take care of those children," says Chandigarh lawyer Anuj Raura, who is representing six-year-old Shifa and her younger brother Steve, five.

In court documents, Raura says the children were abandoned in 2003 by their Indian mother, a Canadian citizen who returned to her family’s home in Edmonton, Alberta, "to enjoy the comforts and luxuries abroad."

The children — described by their lawyer as "smart young kids" — currently live with their father, a professional music teacher in Chandigarh, the dual capital of the northwest Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.

Filing the civil suit through their father, the two minors hold desperately to the hope that the Indian court will reunite them with their estranged mother, 27-year-old Sarvjit Kaur Syan of Edmonton’s Mill Woods Park neighbourhood.

"My mother has gone to Canada. That’s all I know," says Shifa, who has only vague memories of her mother.

Their father, Sam Samson, says the love and affection of a mother are important in the upbringing of a child and hence the petition aimed to bring his children’s mother back into their lives.

"Everything was going smooth till she left for Canada in 2003 after Steve was born. She was in touch over phone initially, but she stopped calling after some time. I don’t know why," claims Samson.

In court documents obtained by the South Asian Post, the civil suit filed in Chandigarh demands that the children be "entitled to live, be taken care of and maintained with all motherly love and affection in the custody of defendant No.1-mother, who has given birth to them."

Also listed as defendants in the bizarre case are Sarvjit’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gurdev Singh Syan, both of whom maintain a shared residence in Sector 22-B, Chandigarh, as well as a family home in Edmonton.

The civil suit further asks of the court that Sarvjit’s parents be "restrained from interfering in the affairs" of both the children and their mother "in any manner whatsoever."

Sarvjit Kaur Syan, her children Steve and Shifa, and her mother-in-law Mrs. Kaur Samson in Chandigarh, India, circa 2003

Lawyer Raura has also asked the court that a "Permanent Injunction be issued directing the . . . mother not to leave the country without taking the plaintiffs with her and/or not to leave the country till arrangement of the plaintiffs to stay with the . . . mother is matured."

"She is not responding in the court; she is not responding to notices. I don’t know if she has left Chandigarh or not," says Raura.

The South Asian Post has learned, however, that Sarvjit Kaur Syan has indeed left India.

Following a visit to Chandigarh late last year to attend her younger sisters’ weddings, Sarvjit returned to her life in Canada, refusing even to see her Shifa and Steve during her stay in the capital.

"I don’t want it actually," she tells the South Asian Post, in an exclusive interview, when asked if she would like to be reunited with her children.

"I want to get on with my life," adds Sarvjit. "It’s so much for me. It’s really complicated actually."

Sarvjit, a part time Home Depot cashier, says she married her former college classmate Samson on "impulse" and soon came to regret it. She claims that following their marriage Samson became abusive, and was a philanderer.

"I just took a wrong decision, I realized after," she says.

"I shouldn’t have done that. My parents were hurt a lot. I was out of culture and then out of caste because we are Sikh and he is Christian."

The unraveling of the "love marriage" of Sarvjit and Samson is a complex affair. Caught in the crossfire are two young children whom their lawyer describes as "heartbroken and confused."

The couple had a long-term affair, but in 1997 Sarvjit emigrated to Canada.

She says she returned on a family visit to India in 2001 and against her family’s wishes "ran away" to wed Samson at Chandigarh’s lakeside Gursagar Sahib Gurdwara on Dec. 20, 2001.

Soon after, she concieved a child.

According to allegations contained in the court documents, Sarvjit’s parents were against the "inter-caste marriage" and urged their daughter to abort the pregnancy.

Instead, the petition states, Sarvjit gave birth on Oct. 2, 2002 to daughter Shifa. The couple’s second child, Steve, was born on July 28, 2003. In December 2003, Sarvjit returned to Canada.

The frequent telephone calls from Edmonton became sporadic and then suddenly stopped.

Lawyer Raura says Sarvjit, while still in Canada, filed a divorce petition against Samson through her parents in Chandigarh.

Sarvjit tells the South Asian Post that she loved and trusted Samson, but that after she became pregnant, he became abusive.

"He was fine when I got married but after I had my first baby it got worse and worse," she says. "He was cheating on me — you’re not supposed to be doing that if someone loves you and marries you.

"I was pregnant and he was beating me and hitting me and he was always drunk and coming home late. He didn’t even care about the kids, he just left me alone with the kids."

Sarvjit says it became too much, and despite her best efforts to make the marriage work, she felt she had no choice but to leave her life in India behind and return to Canada alone.

"I don’t want to live with him, I don’t know why he keeps forcing me," says Sarvjit, adding she believes Samson is using the children as "emotional blackmail" to force her to return to Chandigarh to resume her role as a doting wife and mother.

"She is saying cruelty," rebuts lawyer Raura. "This is nonsense. How can cruelty come about when she is living abroad separately from her husband?"

The divorce petition was reportedly dismissed on technical grounds because it was stated to be attested by Sarvjit in Chandigarh, when in fact she was still in Edmonton.

Samson, 30, says repeated efforts to contact Sarvjit by phone and further efforts to approach her parents in Chandigarh have born "no fruitful result."

He says he cannot afford to come to Canada to confront his estranged wife or fight the case for his children in Canadian court.

Ideally, says lawyer Raura, Samson would like to see his family reunited in India, but would agree to a shared custody arrangement with the mother of his children. His client, Raura says, believes his youngsters stand to lead more prosperous and fullfilling lives in Canada.

Adds Samson: "It’s not that I don’t want my children, but shouldn’t the mother also share the responsibility of bringing up her children?"

The saga took a further twist when Sarvjit returned to Chandigarh in November to attend two of her sisters’ weddings.

Upon learning that Sarvjit had returned to Chandigarh, Samson and his children went to the home of her parents, but were turned away.

They returned a week later to the home in Sector 22-B.

According to the civil suit, the children "repeatedly pleaded before their maternal grand parents to allow them to meet their mother" but the grandparents "remained unmoved and did not give any positive response to their pleadings."

Events took a more dramatic turn when Samson, along with his children, his mother and six or seven other relatives and friends crashed the wedding of Sarvjit’s younger sister at Chandigarh’s Hotel Orange.

The children allegedly "had a chance to have a glimpse of their mother and they ran toward her" before Sarvjit was whisked away by her parents.

The police were then summoned and all of the parties were taken to the police station where the children and their father "repeatedly requested defendant No.1 to take care of the plaintiffs and not to leave them in this pitiable condition so as to deprive them from motherly love, affection and care required for proper growth."

According to the children’s petition, their mother "did not speak anything but left mum."

Sarvjit claims she avoided her husband and children out of fear.

"He (Samson) just came to the wedding and wrecked the party, there were other relatives there," she says. "My mom and dad were so worried something was going to happen, that he wasn’t going to let me go back to Canada. I had to get out of there actually."

The children’s case underscores an interesting legal issue: If the case is successful, can the mother, a Canadian citizen living in Canada, be compelled by an Indian court to assume custody of her Indian children?

Currently, there is no international law governing marriages, and both India and Canada tend to their own matters of civil law.

Asked if the case is a ploy by Samson to gain entry to Canada for himself, Chandigarh lawyer Anuj Raura says his client is "not very keen" on moving to Canada and simply "wants his wife back."

It seems unlikely at this juncture that Sarvjit will return to India. Or that she will heed the call of her children.

She says she has no interest in seeing her husband or children again.

"He’s making excuses and making delay," she says. "I told him if he needs help for the kids I’m ready to do that. I can try my best to give him half."

Sarvjit says she does miss her two young children abandoned to a life a world away.

"I do actually," she says. "But I don’t call them since I apply for divorce. It’s too much for me. I want to get on with my life."