GODWIN PAUL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed on the allegation that the petitioner's fiancee, Amitha.K.S., aged 22 years, is under the unlawful detention of respondents 5 and 6. According to the petitioner, the petitioner and the detenue are in love and eventually they decided to get married in accordance with law. When the 5th respondent came to know about the proposed marriage, he opposed the same. On 28.02.2020, the detenue left her home with the petitioner and they began to live together in his house. On 29.02.2020, the 5 th respondent contacted the petitioner and informed him that the detenue's mother was admitted in Kottayam Medical College and her mother wants to meet her. Then the petitioner and the detenue went to the hospital but respondents 5 and 6 along with their henchmen attacked the petitioner and forcefully took the detenue from there. On the same day petitioner received a phone call from the detenue that she is mentally and physically tortured by the 5th respondent and others. In the above circumstance, the petitioner has no remedy other than filing this writ petition invoking the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to liberate the detenue from the unlawful detention of respondents 5 and 6 and set her free.

(2.) Pursuant to the interim order of this Court dated 06.03.2020, the detenue has been produced before this Court and we have interacted with the detenue. The detenue submits that the allegations in the writ petition are true and correct. According to her, she eloped with the petitioner on her own volition and thereafter they began to live together. While so, respondents 5 and 6 made them to believe that her mother is admitted in Kottayam Medical College and mother wants to meet her. As per the above information, she went to the hospital along with the petitioner, from where the 5th respondent and his men confined her into their illegal custody and thereafter she is not allowed to move freely and independently. She wants to go and live along with the petitioner and to get married with him, at the earliest, in accordance with law. She does not want to go and live along with respondents 5 and 6.

(3.) In view of the statement made before us, we find that the detenue is under the unlawful detention of respondents 5 and 6. The detenue, being a major, has the right to live freely and independently with the petitioner, without any interference from the part of respondents 5 and 6.