The teenaged Caste Hindu girl, who allegedly eloped with a Dalit boy last week, expressed her desire to go with her mother, in the Madras High Court on Friday.
Justice KBK Vasuki, before whom the girl was produced on Friday, said that she was entitled to stay in a place according to her wish, as she was a major.
The police officer concerned also told the judge that there was no law and order problem in Ponneri in Tiruvallur district. The judge then directed the officer to give adequate protection to the girl when produced before the Judicial Magistrate in Ponneri, where the original complaint was pending.
The judge also directed the JM to record the girl’s wish to stay with her mother and release her on Friday itself to enable her to go with her mother.
The judge was disposing of a writ petition from Manjula, the girl’s mother, from Jegannathapuram Chathiram village in Tiruvallur district.
The girl had eloped with a boy last week. Her mother lodged a missing complaint with the local police. Meanwhile, the girl’s father Ravi, unable to bear the humiliation, committed suicide.
In the meantime, the girl was secured by police and kept in a social welfare home at Kellys.
The mother approached Justice Vasuki with the present writ petition at her residence on Sunday last to permit her daughter to attend her husband’s funeral and the judge granted the permission.
When the matter came up again on Friday, the girl and her mother were present in the court.
The girl expressed her desire to go with her mother. Recording the wish, the judge disposed of the petition.