Court No. - 37
Case :- HABEAS CORPUS WRIT PETITION No. - 456 of 2019 Petitioner :- Smt. Shahana Bi (Corpus) And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Farid Ahmed Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Karuna Nand Bajpayee,J. Hon'ble Sanjay Kumar Singh,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned A.G.A for the State.
This writ petition has been filed with a prayer to issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondent no. 4 (Superintendent Naari Niketan, Deputyganj Near namely Smt. Shahana Bi (Corpus) W/o Shamshad @ Shamshad Husain to release the corpus in favour of the petitioner No. 2 namely Shamshad @ Shamshad Husain.
It appears that in the background of the allegation, the corpus who, according to her aadhar card was 14 years of age, was sent to Bal Grih Balika, Meera Ji ki Chauki District Budaun by order dated 22.09.2017 passed by the Children Welfare Board, Sambhal. Learned counsel for the petitioner has pointed out that this institution has now ceased to exist, therefore, another order was passed on 02.09.2018 by the Child Welfare Committee, Sambhal by which the corpus Shahana Bi has now been sent to Rajkiya Mahila Sarlaya, District Moradabad after her medical examination. Learned counsel for the petitioner has tried to argue that actually she has attained the age of majority according to the medical certificate dated 15.9.2017 and therefore, the Board should not send her in Rajkiya Mahila Sarnalaya, Moradabad and her detention should be deemed as unlawful.
The record reveals that the Child Welfare Board has sent the corpus Shabana Bi in the custody of Bal Grih Balika, Budaun in view of alleged minority and there was no flaw in that order. That particular order is not under challenge before this Court. Obviously, as the aforesaid girl has to be shifted to another equivalent custody of same place, where she may be kept safe by the authorities, whether it was because of the same reason that another order dated 24.08.2018 was passed.
In such circumstances, the factum of sending her to the aforesaid custody cannot be termed as illegal or unlawful. The issues as has been raised regarding the age are to be contested before the concerned authorities below.
This Court is only required to form opinion whether the victim can be said to be under illegal detention or not. In the opinion of this Court, we do not feel after considering the matter as a whole, that the custody of the girl is unlawful or illegal.
Moreover, it may also be observed that the petitioner no. 2 is himself an accused and is facing prosecution under Section 366, 363, 506 of IPC for having kidnapped the aforesaid girl. So at any rate, Court does not deem it to be a fit case where the girl may be set at liberty to go alongwith him.
The petition deserves to be dismissed and accordingly, this habeas corpus writ petition stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 3.6.2019 M. ARIF