Court No. - 47
Case :- HABEAS CORPUS WRIT PETITION No. - 613 of 2021 Petitioner :- Priyanka Pal and another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vipul Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Mahesh Chandra Tripathi,J. Hon'ble Ram Krishna Gautam,J.
Heard Shri Vipul Pandey, learned counsel for the petitioners and learned A.G.A. for the State respondents.
Present writ petition is preferred for direction commanding the respondents to produce the petitioner Priyanka Pal (corpus) forthwith before this Court.
The matter was taken up on 14.9.2021 and on the said date, following order had been passed:-
"The written instructions supplied by the learned A.G.A. is taken on the record.
Learned counsel for the petitioner prays for and is granted permission to implead the mother of the corpus as petitioner no. 2 in the array of the parties within the course of the day.
A categorical statement has been made in the writ petition that the corpus, Priyanka Pal, who is aged about 17 years, had been lodged at Child Care Centre, Etawah. However, the custody of the corpus had been handed over to her alleged husband without any information or notice to the parents of the corpus/petitioner no. 2 herein. The High School mark sheet of the corpus has been appended at page-'10' of the paper book to demonstrate that the date of birth is 07.03.2004 i.e. she is below 18 years on the date of filing of the habeas corpus petition.
Along with the instructions received by the learned A.G.A. copy of the order dated 07.07.2021 passed by the Chairman/Magistrate, Child Welfare Committee, Farrukhabad has been brought on the record, which indicates that the custody of the corpus had been handed over to the person concerned as per the wishes of the corpus/victim girl. We cannot approve the decision of the Child Welfare Committee to hand over the custody of the victim girl to any other person than her parents. We may further note that the date of birth of the corpus recorded in the High School mark sheet as 07.03.2004, though, had been noted by the Child Welfare Committee but taking into consideration of the medical report, in an illegal manner, the custody of the minor girl has been handed over allegedly according to her wishes. The order dated 07.07.2021 nowhere shows that any notice or information was given to the parents of the corpus before giving her custody to another person.
Let a notice be issued to the Chairman/Magistrate, Child Welfare Committee, Farrukhabad who had passed the order dated 07.07.2021. The officer concerned shall file his personal affidavit on the next date fixed to submit his explanation in passing an illegal order and handing over the custody of the minor girl in contravention of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
This order shall be communicated to the concerned officer/Magistrate, Child Welfare Committee, Farrukhabad from the office of the Government Advocate, High Court, Allahabad, within a period of 48 hours.
Let this matter be posted as fresh on 23rd September, 2021.
In case of failure on the part of the officer concerned to file the affidavit by the next date fixed, the Court may take adverse view of the matter."
In pursuance of the aforesaid order dated 14.9.2021, Smt. Pinki, wife of late Pravin Kumar/mother of the first petitioner (corpus) has been arrayed as second petitioner on the same date.
On the matter being taken up today, learned A.G.A. has placed on record a copy of the Supurdgi dated 01.8.2021 and the same is taken on record. He apprises to the Court that on 18.2.2018 corpus Priyanka Pal went to her School to appear in High School Examination. Once she did not return back to her home, then grand father of the corpus lodged the aforesaid FIR registered as Case Crime No.171 of 2018, wherein the statement of the first petitioner/corpus under Section 164 Cr.P.C. was recorded and she had categorically stated that she wants to join her husband Ankit Pal and at no point of time, her husband had committed rape on her. Eventually, the custody of the first petitioner/corpus has been given to her husband by the Juvenile Justice Board on 07.7.2021. He further apprises to the Court that so far as the aforesaid FIR is concerned, final report has already been submitted and as such, at present no cognizable offence is made out against the accused.
We have occasion to peruse the material, as has been placed before us, and once learned A.G.A. apprised to the Court that the custody of the corpus has been accorded by the Juvenile Justice Board on 07.7.2021 in favour of her husband then in the light of the Full Bench judgement of this Court dated 08.3.2021 passed in Rachna and another vs State of UP and 4 others, Habeas Corpus Writ Petition No. 362 of 2020, the present writ petition is not maintainable.
In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, we are not inclined to proceed further in the matter.
Accordingly, the present writ petition is disposed of.
The party shall file computer generated copy of such order downloaded from the official website of High Court Allahabad, self attested by the petitioners alongwith a self attested identity proof of the said person (preferably Aadhar Card) mentioning the mobile number to which the said Aadhar Card is linked.
The concerned Court/Authority/Official shall verify the authenticity of such computerized copy of the order from the official website of High Court Allahabad and shall make a declaration of such verification in writing.
Order Date :- 30.9.2021 RKP