Muhammed Muhasin vs Ashokan Km

A.K.Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.

The petitioner, who is stated to be aged 22 years of age, and is currently pursuing B.Sc Nursing course at the East West College of Nursing,

Bangalore, has approached this Court alleging that Ms.Gayathri Krishna, with whom he is stated to be in love, and proposes to get married, is in the

alleged illegal custody of her parents. It is stated that the girl, Ms.Gayathri Krishna is 19 years old, and that the petitioner had developed an intimacy

with the said Gayathri Krishna, and with an intention of getting married, they had caused necessary notice in terms of the Special Marriage Act to be

published, and the notice period will expire shortly. The prayer in the writ petition is for a writ of Habeas Corpus to produce the detenue in Court.

When the matter came up before this Court on 24.5.2021, this Court had directed the Investigating Officer in Crime No.103/2021 of Meppayur

Police Station to record a statement of the alleged detenue Ms.Gayathri Krishna in the presence of a Prosecutor, if that was practical, and a copy of

the statement was directed to be produced along with the memo of the Prosecutor on the next date of posting. We have since received the copy of

the statement of the alleged detenue and also a report from the Court of Judicial First Class Magistrate, which refers to an interaction with the alleged

detenue over a whatsapp video call and the satisfaction of the Judicial First Class Magistrate that Ms.Gayathri Krishna had gone along with the

petitioner on her own volition and there was no duress on her to go with the said person. The present concern of the petitioner, however, is with

regard to the alleged detention of Ms.Gayathri Krishna at the instance of her parents. The 1st respondent herein is the father of the alleged detenue.

When the matter was taken up by this Court yesterday, we asked the learned Prosecutor to make arrangement for having an interaction over video

conference with the alleged detenue so that we could ascertain the wishes of the alleged detenue to decide upon a further cause of action. The

learned Prosecutor has ensured that the alleged detenue Ms.Gayathri Krishna is before this Court through video conference, and on an interaction that

we had with Ms.Gayathri Krishna today, we are informed by her that she would like to remain in the custody of her parents till such time as she

completes her nursing course at Bangalore. This would mean that she is not desirous of going ahead with the proposed marriage in terms of the

Special Marriage Act, for which, notice has already been published and the notice period of which is due to expire in the next couple of days. We then

let in the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned counsel for the 1st respondent as also the Public Prosecutor into the video conference

proceedings so that they could also hear the words of Ms.Gayathri Krishna. She again reiterated her desire to remain with her parents during the

course of her study at Bangalore and stated that she was not inclined to pursue the marriage with the petitioner at this point in time.

In view of the aforesaid developments, we are constrained to close this writ petition by acceding to the wishes of the alleged detenue and permitting

her to go with her parents.

The writ petition is accordingly closed.