Judge Paul Lam Shang Leen will state on Friday whether Tipo will be entrusted to the care of the Aurdallys, or that of Marianne Alfred. She had been hiding with the child for several days, after the court had given a ruling confirming Tipo’s adoption by Mahmad and Ameenah Aurdally.

Marianne has no legal right to the child, but she insists she is the only mother Tipo has. She went to the police last Saturday to “reply” to the affidavits sworn by the Aurdally couple accusing her of contempt of court. Her lawyers, Hervé Lassémillante and Jacques Panglose, and her solicitor, Panzany Rangasamy, accompanied her and Tipo in the Supreme Court yesterday.

As this is a very touchy issue, which has brought up much passion from both parties but also from mere observers, acting chief justice, Bernard Sik Yuen, has proposed a temporary compromise, which all parties have accepted: little Tipo will remain with Marianne until next Friday, when the case is heard.

The conflict started when Tipo’s biological mother, Saheera, died. On her deathbed, she asked Marianne to look afterTipo. Marianne has been taking care of the little boy since he was three months old but she has never taken any legal steps to adopt him or become his legal guardian. She may not have seen why she had to do so as both her and the little boy knew she was his “foster” mother.

Marianne is a friend of Mahmad Aurdally’s brother and she sometimes left him there and this is how the Aurdallys came to know Tipo. They got on so well that Mahmad and Ameenah proposed to take charge of Tipo’s education at Zam Zam Islamic Centre in 2002.

Then, the relationship gradually became closer. Tipo had his own room at the Aurdally’s place where he stayed over two or three days a week. The Aurdallys fetched him at school, gave him dinner and he stayed with them quite often. This didn’t seem to bother Marianne but she says she would never believe they would have asked for his legal adoption.

According to the Aurdallys, they had never really thought about the possibility of adopting Tipo until they wanted to take him with them for holidays in India last April. When Mahmad went to the Passport Office to say he wanted to include Tipo in their trip, officers told him he needed to have a legal right on the child. This is when the idea came. But Mahmad admits that he didn’t want to inform Marianne of his projects before obtaining Tipo’s passport.

Hide from justice

However, according to Mahmad, this adoption would not change anything. “Neither I nor Marianne Alfred had any legal rights on this child. Anyone who would ask for his adoption would have obtained it. The adoption would not have changed anything since I would have let Mohamed – this is how the Aurdally call him – continue to go to the Alfreds as he has always done.” But Marianne didn’t perceive the situation like this and she decided to hide the child. As a result, Tipo has not been to school for months.

Since the adoption procedures seemed to have followed the proper channel, Judge Bushan Domah entrusted the child to the Aurdallys. The latter had proved that they had been taking care of Tipo and applied for his adoption while Marianne’s name was not mentioned anywhere in Tipo’s administrative papers. “What I can only notice is that the child has not been to school since the beginning of the semester and this is really a pity (...) “Whatever be the merits of their case which only a competent court may be able to determine, the manner in which they have gone about their supposed rights over the child together with their conduct and behaviour indicate to me that the applicants barely have the interest of the child as their main concern,” writes judge Domah.

The game seems far from being won by either Marianne or the Aurdallys. Judge Lam Shang Leen is indeed faced with a case very much like “Solomon’s judgement”.