S. HAJARUDEEN Vs. SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE CHENGALPET

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Captioned 'Habeas Corpus Petition' ['HCP' for the sake of brevity] has been filed on 13/3/2023 (to be noted, 13/3/2023 according to the coding sheet and 14/3/2023 if one goes by the High Court seal) regarding two children (to be noted, one child and one infant) of the petitioner 'xxx' and 'yyy' (we are masking the names and we shall be referring to these two child and infant collectively as 'absentees') and with regard to individual references, we shall refer to them as 'child absentee' and 'infant absentee' for the sake of convenience.

(2.) Mr.S.Parthasarathi, learned counsel on record for the petitioner, who is before us, submits that petitioner's wife died on 17/6/2022, at the time when the petitioner's wife was undergoing treatment in the hospital (obviously prior to demise), the absentees were in the care and custody of the third respondent, who is none other than petitioner's mother-in-law i.e., mother of the petitioner's deceased wife.

(3.) Learned counsel for petitioner submits that the petitioner is the natural guardian of the absentees and the petitioner is entitled to guardianship and visitation rights. Considering that this is a habeas corpus legal drill we deem it appropriate to not to express any view or opinion on this submission. To be noted, we propose to leave it open to the parties to approach appropriate Court/Courts/Forum/Fora qua guardianship.