Andhra Pradesh High Court: A Division Bench of Tarlada Rajashekhar Rao and K Manmadha Rao, JJ. disposed of the petition and directed the respondents to set free of detenu’s liberty and the petitioner to take her back to lead happy marital life.
The brief facts of the case are that an inter-religious marriage was performed between the petitioner and detenu, namely, Mrs. Shaik Rijvana as per the rites and customs of Christian religion against the will and wishes of the parents and other relatives of the detenu. Due to solemnization of their marriage, the parents and relatives of detenu bore grudge against them and started harassing with active assistance of Police authorities. One day, on the pretext of causal check, the police authorities visited the house of the petitioner, manhandled his family members, including the detenu and forcibly abducted the petitioner’s wife. Subsequently, the petitioner requested the official respondents to refrain from forcibly abducting her but they bluntly refused to heed to it. On reliable information, the petitioner learnt that the detenu was confined in respondent 8, bungalow. Therefore, the efforts of the petitioner and his family members in securing the presence of the detenu ended futile. On the contrary, the action of police authorities in unlawfully detaining her is unsustainable and untenable. The present writ petition was filed by the petitioner seeking a direction to the official respondents to secure the presence of petitioner’s wife namely Mrs. Shaik Rijvana before the Court and set her at liberty.
The Court directed the respondent to produce the detenu before Court and on production of the same, the detenu was found to not be willing to stay with the parents and reported that there is no safety to her life and also further informed that she is major and she wants to live with Karthik/petitioner herein. On further production of the husband, it was fairly stated that he is ready to take his wife, who is the detenu, namely, Mrs. Shaik Rijvana and the detenu also stated that she is also willing to go and live with him.
The Court observed and held that on considering the submissions of the petitioner and the detenu, as they are majors and they have agreed to live together, this Court is of the considered view that there is no need for any interference of the parents in this writ petition. Therefore, this Court is not inclined to implead the petitioner/respondent NO.9 on record, and accordingly, the I.A No.1 of 2022 is dismissed.
[Chundura Karthik v. State of AP, 2022 SCC OnLine AP 1270, decided on 26-05-2022]
The judgement is straightforward. There is no need for any great “application of mind” by the judge. So far so good. The judge could have also ordered that the two should together physically attend the police station every fortnight and sign in the register om complaints, if any. That would give the couple an “Armour”