VIKRAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This habeas corpus petition has been filed seeking to direct the respondents herein to produce the body of the petitioner's legally wedded wife Ayulusha, aged about 18 years, now confined at 2 nd respondent home, before this Court and set her at liberty forthwith.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that he hails from Adi-Dravidar Community and is aged about twenty one years; he and Ayulusha, D/o.Lakshminarayanan, third respondent herein, fell in love with each other and eloped, because, the marriage was not acceptable to the family of Ayulusha; they got married on 08.07.2020 and the marriage was registered in the office of the Sub-Registrar, Kalasapakkam, Thiruvannamalai District, on 09.07.2020 vide Certificate No.69/2020.

(3.) It is the specific case of the petitioner that the date of birth of Ayulusha is 15.06.2002. While so, on the complaint lodged by Lakshminarayanan, father of Ayulusha, a case in Vettavalam Police Station Crime No.1331 of 2020 was registered on 13.06.2020, for 'girl missing'. Later, the police altered the case into one under Sections 363 and 366 IPC r/w Sections 4 and 18 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (for brevity the POCSO Act ) on 14.07.2020 after the arrest of the petitioner. The petitioner was remanded in judicial custody on 14.07.2020 and Ayulusha was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, Thiruvannamalai, which lodged her in the Reception Home, Thiruvannamalai, on 15.07.2020, on the premise that Ayulusha is a child. However, on the same day, the Child Welfare Committee, Thiruvannamalai, transferred Ayulusha to the second respondent Home, through the police, where, Ayulusha is now lodged.