MOHAMMED ALI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application is disposed of at the admission stage itself with the consent of the parties as the matter involves the deliverance of a respectable girl from the After Care Home for women situated at Patharki-Masjid within the Sultan Ganj Police Station, Patna (here-in-after referred to as 'the Care Home').

(2.) The matter has come up before me today for adjudication only on the question of the release of the victim girl, namely, Archana alias Afsana Khatoon, from the Care Home where she is now lodged on the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate. The petitioner asserts that he married the aforesaid girl with her consent and they have lived as husband and wife and she is consequently pregnant. It may be stated that the petitioner is. being prosecuted on these facts and is at present on bail. When the matter was beared by me at the time of admission, I and directed the authorities to produce the girl, namely, Archna alias Afsana Khatoon, in Court. This direction was sent to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna, to depute an Inspector of Police to do the job. It appears that this direction has been disobeyed because the girl has come here with the matron of the Care Home without being escorted by the Police. The matron informs that the order of this Court was conveyed to her by somebody from the Sultanganj Police Station and in obedience to that order she has come with the victim girl.

(3.) There are two aspects of tbe matter that need to be considered. Firstly, whether the victim girl was a minor one when the kidnapping took place and secondly whether at present she should continue to be lodged in the Care Home or she should be released to move freely wherever she wants because the difference of age is entirely marginal.