S.Santhosh v. The Superintendent Of Police
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED : 13.09.2023
CORAM
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE M.SUNDAR and THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE R.SAKTHIVEL S.Santhosh . Petitioner Vs.
1.
The Superintendent of Police Office of Superintendent of Police Tiruppur 2.
The Inspector of Police Avinashi Police Station Tiruppur 3.
Thirumurthy 4.
Sarasu Mani 5.
Velliangiri 6.
Krishnaveni ..Respondents Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ order or direction in the nature of WRIT OF HABEAS Page Nos.1/10
CORPUS directing the second respondent to produce the body of detenu namely T.Nandhini, wife of Santhosh, aged about 20 years,before this Court from the illegal custody of respondents 3 to 6 and set her at liberty. For Petitioner :
Mr.K.Kathiresan For Respondents :
Mr.A.Gokulakrishnan Additional Public Prosecutor
O R D E R
[Order of the Court was made by M.SUNDAR, J.,] Captioned 'Habeas Corpus Petition' ['HCP' for the sake of brevity] has been filed in this Court on 04.09.2023.
2. Mr.K.Kathiresan, learned counsel on record for HCP petitioner is before this Court.
3. Factual matrix in a nutshell as culled out from the case file and submissions of learned counsel for petitioner are that the HCP petitioner married one 'Nandhini, aged 20 years' [hereinafter 'absentee' for the sake of convenience and clarity]; that the date of marriage is 07.09.2022; that it is a Page Nos.2/10
self-respect marriage; that the marriage was registered on the file of Joint Registrar I (Marriage), Coimbatore; that absentee went to her parents' house (to be noted, Respondents 3 and 4 are HCP petitioner's parents-in-law) on 27.08.2023 but absentee has not returned home; that Respondents 5 and 6, who are private respondents, are relatives of petitioner's parents-in-law [respondents 3 and 4]; that it is the case of the HCP petitioner that absentee is being illegally detained by Respondents 3 to 6; that HCP petitioner has sent a complaint to the first respondent [superintendent of police] on 31.08.2023.
4. Issue notice.
5. Mr.A.Gokulakrishnan, learned Additional Public Prosecutor accepts notice for official respondents i.e., Respondents 1 and 2.
6. Learned Prosecutor on instructions [instructed by Ms.M.Goindammal, Special Sub-Inspector of Police, Avinashi Police Station] submits that no complaint has been lodged in the jurisdictional Page Nos.3/10
police station i.e., Avinashi Police Station, Tiruppur; that aforementioned 31.08.2023 complaint has been sent by the HCP petitioner directly to the first respondent Superintendent of Police, Tiruppur; that the same has been received by the first respondent office on 05.09.2023 and that it has been forwarded to his deputy on 11.09.2023 and it is yet to reach the second respondent.
7. Considering the nature of the matter, we are of the view that captioned HCP can be disposed of without the presence of the private respondents before us. It will suffice to say that all the rights and contentions of the private respondents are preserved.
8. Let the second respondent treat the 31.08.2023 communication as a complaint. To be noted, a scanned reproduction of the complaint as placed before us as part of the case file is as follows: Page Nos.4/10
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9. We direct the second respondent to produce the absentee along with Respondents 3 to 6 with prior intimation to the petitioner before the jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate [we are informed that Judicial Magistrate Court, Avinashi is the jurisdictional Magistrate] within a fortnight from today i.e., by 27.09.2023.
10. We request jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate to record statement from the absentee, petitioner, private respondents and any other person concerned.
11. We find that petitioner and absentee are majors and therefore, the absentee can take a call on whether she would go with the petitioner or with the private respondents and that will depend on her statement before the jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate.
12. For the purpose of specificity we make it clear that all the rights and contentions of the petitioner, private respondents qua any other connected/collateral proceedings (if any or if initiated in future), in any Court/s/Forum/Fora/Authority/Authorities will stand preserved. If there is Page Nos.7/10
any other development, the rights of the petitioner or any one concerned for the absentee to come to this Court with similar/same prayer is also preserved.
Captioned HCP disposed of in the aforesaid manner with the aforesaid observations, directives and preservation of rights in the aforesaid manner.
(M.S.,J.) (R.S.V.,J.) 13.09.2023 Index: Yes gpa Page Nos.8/10
To 1.
The Superintendent of Police Office of Superintendent of Police Tiruppur 2.
The Inspector of Police Avinashi Police Station Tiruppur 3.
The Public Prosecutor High Court, Madras.
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M.SUNDAR, J., and R.SAKTHIVEL, J., gpa 13.09.2023 Page Nos.10/10