Cuttack: A parent should not be refused permission to contact or visit his/her child except in extreme circumstances supported by cogent reason, the Orissa high court opined on Wednesday, while upholding a trial court order granting visitation right to a father.“The visitation right is an important right of either of the parents to see the children born out of their wedlock,” Justice Gourishankar Satapathy said while hearing a case in which a woman had moved court challenging the grant of visitation right to the father.“It is a matter of fact that the child, especially of tender years, requires love, affection, company, protection and guidance of both the parents and these are not only the requirement of the child, but also are his/her basic human rights and need.”Observing that childhood is always the victim in custody battles, Justice Satapathy pointed out that child should not be denied proper care and affection, merely because his/her parents are at war with each other. “The child is not an inanimate object which can be tossed from one parent to another,” the court stated. According to the case records, a woman was deserted by her husband when their child was hardly one month old. Consequently, the minor child has been in the custody of the mother since Sept 17, 2012. The husband sought divorce in 2015. When custody of the child was sought, the court of senior civil judge (Talcher) granted visitation rights to the father on Nov 23, 2019.The mother challenged the decision on the ground that the child had grown up to be a boy of over 12 years, but the father had never visited the son nor had taken care of the child or made arrangements for his survival. Besides, she has not been paid with maintenance, the mother contended.However, Justice Satapathy said, “Such contention is insignificant because the visitation right of the child is considered on a different pedestal of welfare of the child, which is paramount in considering the application for visitation right.”