Bhuvana Marni
Published on: October 21, 2022 at 23:21 IST
The Allahabad High Court has observed that any other person cannot interfere with a contested adult couple’s decision of a life partner, their desire for intimate intimacy, or their desire to achieve love and fulfilment in a human relationship.
The husband filed a Habeas Corpus plea after his wife submitted before the Court that she is willing to go with him and live her matrimonial life peacefully which Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh allowed the plea.
The Court issued a notice in the matter instructing the family members of the girl to present her before the Court, where the petitioner moved the instant plea seeking the appearance of his wife before the Court, who, he claimed, was in illegal captivity of her family member.
Following that, on July 22, 2022, an FIR was filed against the petitioner/husband under Sections 376/354(C) of the IPC and 4 of the POCSO Act. The Court said that it was evident that the FIR had been filed after the Court’s order instructing the respondents to produce the corpus by July 18, 2022, when it heard the case on September 13.
Both petitioner No. 1 (Sandeep Kumar) and petitioner No. 2 (Sakshi Panchal) presented before the court and it was told to the Court that both the petitioners are majors and they have solemnized their marriage in a Temple and have got their marriage registered in November 2021.
Both petitioner 1 & 2 said to the court that they were living happily as husband and wife, but in November 2021, the family members of Petitioner 2 forcefully took her to her father’s house and since then she had been held captive by of respondent Nos. 4 to 10.
The court recorded the statements by the corpus below as well as the High Court the Court noted that since the corpus is willing to go and live with petitioner No. 1, therefore, the Court allowed her to go with her husband by observing thus:
“The choice of a life partner, the desire for personal intimacy and yearning to find love and fulfilment of human relationship between two consenting adults cannot be interfered with by any other persons.”
In view of the above, the writ petition was allowed.
The corpus was allowed to go with petitioner No. 1 and further, the Registrar General was directed to refund the number of Rs. 40,000/- which was deposited by petitioner No. 1 before, according to the order of the Court on July 18, 2022.
Case Title: Sandeep Kumar and Another vs. State of U.P. and 9 Others [HABEAS CORPUS WRIT PETITION No. – 536 of 2022]