Madhya Pradesh High Court: Sheel Nagu, J. allowed the petition filed by the petitioner by directing the respondents to not unlawfully restraint the corpus from meeting and residing with her husband.
The petitioner (husband of the corpus) had filed a petition seeking the Court to issue a writ of habeas corpus on the foundational allegation that the petitioner and corpus had solemnized their marriage on 10-03-2018 against the wishes of the parents of the corpus. They both were adults aged both aged about 24 years. The corpus had been held in unlawful restraint of her father who was an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police.
When the corpus was brought before the Court by a Lady Constable, she revealed that she married the petitioner on her own and with her free will. She wished to reside with the petitioner before the Court. She, however, did not allege wrongful confinement against her father but placed on record that she was restrained by her parents from meeting the petitioner.
The Court heard both the sides and held that there was some amount of unlawful restraint by the father of the corpus by preventing her from meeting her husband. She married the petitioner married after attaining marriageable age without any coercion.
In view of the above, the Court gave the following directions in its Order:-
(i) The corpus was free to reside at the place and with the person of her choice.
(ii) The parents of the corpus were directed to not cause any unlawful restraint on the activities and movement of the corpus including meeting with the petitioner.
(iii) The police escort who brought the corpus to the court was directed to escort her to the place of her choice so as to avoid any mishap.[Kaushal Jha v. State of M.P., 2019 SCC OnLine MP 2726, decided on 26-09-2019]
