The Al Madam Court of First Instance has dismissed a father’s objection to a judicial order allowing his four-year-old daughter to travel abroad with her custodian, ruling that his failure to comply with court instructions caused the travel period to lapse, rendering the objection legally void.
The Personal Status Circuit found that the father did not hand over the child’s passport within the timeframe specified by the court, which led to the cancellation of the trip and the expiry of the travel permit. As a result, the court held that the objection no longer had a valid subject matter.
Court records show that the dispute began after the court granted the child’s mother, the legal custodian, permission to travel with the minor to Jordan for six days under certain conditions. The order required the mother to cover all travel expenses and directed the father to hand over the child’s passport two days before departure, with the passport to be returned after their return to the UAE.
The father later filed an objection seeking to revoke the travel permit, arguing that the trip was not medically necessary, was unrelated to any emergency, and violated his court-established visitation rights. He claimed the custodian had not coordinated with him and suggested she could travel alone while the child remained in his care.
In response, the mother told the court that the trip could not proceed because the father repeatedly refused to surrender the child’s passport despite multiple attempts to comply with the court’s order. She added that his refusal caused the cancellation of travel arrangements, financial loss, and emotional distress.
The court emphasized that judicial objections must relate to an existing and effective legal matter and that a party cannot seek relief against an order whose execution was blocked by their own actions. The court also noted that failure to comply with judicial orders within the prescribed timeframe does not create legal entitlement or revive expired orders.
Accordingly, the court rejected the father’s objection and ordered him to pay all court fees and expenses.
