New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday took strong exception to the Karnataka High Court’s move to adjourn on 14 occasions a habeas corpus petition filed by a Dubai-based man against his partner’s alleged illegal detention by her parents.
A division bench led by Justice B.R. Gavai further frowned upon the HC’s indefinite adjournment of the case to 2025 — the last hearing of the case before the HC was on 11 December, 2023. The top court also ordered the 25-year-woman’s parents to “set her at liberty forthwith”.
The order came on a petition by Dubai-based Kevin Joy Varghese. In his petition, Varghese, who moved the SC after the HC’s December order, said that he moved the habeas corpus for his partner Meera Chidambaram in September 2023 and that the HC issued notice in the case on 29 September.
“Anguished” with the Karnataka HC’s approach to the case, Justice Gavai’s bench observed that the former should have acted on the petition and set free the 25-year-old woman, particularly when she, in “unequivocal” terms, expressed her wish to go back to Dubai to pursue a career there.
“Adjourning the matter on fourteen occasions and now postponing it indefinitely and posting it in the year 2025 depicts a total lack of sensitivity on the part of the High Court in such a matter,” SC said.
Not passing the right orders at the appropriate stage has “contributed to further illegal detention of the detenue,” the court noted.
Because of the HC’s lackadaisical approach, the petitioner and his parents have been compelled to make frequent trips from Dubai to Bengaluru just to ensure the “well-being of the detenue,” the court said, adding: “When the question of liberty of a person is involved even a day’s delay counts”.
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In his petition, Varghese submitted that his partner, Chidambaram, had recorded her statement with the state authorities on 27 September.
“On the directions of the court, Meera and her family appeared before the HC on 10 October 2023 and met the judge in chambers”, the petition said.
In her statement, the woman “categorically stated that she was forcibly taken away from Dubai on the pretext of her grandfather’s sickness and that she is being forced to enter into an arranged marriage”, according to the petition.
Before arriving at its decision, the SC bench also interacted with the woman, Chidambaram, and her parents in chambers, the court said in its order Wednesday.
It quoted Chidambaram as saying that she wished to return to Dubai with the petitioner and pursue her career. She also stated that although she got interview calls from Dubai for different jobs on three different occasions, she was unable to attend these as her parents had detained her, the order said.
On their part, Chidambaram’s parents told the court they were not opposed to their daughter’s wishes, they wanted her to be financially stable and that she could do what she wanted thereafter, the order said.
In its order, the top court observed that Chidambaram “is highly qualified”. “Interaction with her showed that she is mature enough to understand as to what is right and what is wrong for her in her life. In any case, a major girl cannot be compelled to do something against her wishes,” it said.
While directing the woman’s parents to let her go, it asked them to return her passports and other documents to her within 48 hours.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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so no punishment for the HC and its judge, lawyers who delayed this case?