CHENNAI: As directed by a division bench of the Madras High Court on August 10 last, R Pongiappan, Principal District Judge in Coimbatore, visited the Isha Foundation at Velliangiri on the same day and submitted a report to the bench of Justices S Nagamuthu and V Bharathidasan on Friday.
After going through the report, the bench found that the two women have undertaken the path of sanyasins and are staying at the Foundation on their own volition and there is no illegal detention, as alleged by their mother in her habeas corpus writ petition. The judges added that the parents are at liberty to go and see their daughters with due intimation to the Foundation in advance. In her petition, K Sathiajothi had alleged that her two daughters - Geetha Kamaraj (34) and Latha Kamaraj (31) - were well educated and were drawing decent salaries. They were brain-washed by the Foundation and kept in illegal detention against their wishes.
On the contrary, the judges noted from the PDJ’s report that the duo had undertaken the path of Sanyasin, changed their names as Ma Mathi and Ma Maayu and were peacefully living in the Foundation for the past five years. The sisters had made it very clear that they were not willing to return to their parental home. In effect, their statements showed that they were willing to stay only at the Foundation following the path of sanyasin. The PDJ had also stated in his report that there was no truth in petitioner’s allegation that her daughters were kept in illegal detention.
The PDJ, however, stated that it would be appropriate if the sisters were allowed to stay outside the Foundation for some time before their mindset was assessed once again. To this, the bench said that it would not be possible to force somebody to come out of a particular place and to stay at a place to be chosen by someone else. To a query, the counsel for the Foundation submitted that the parents of the sisters can visit the Foundation at any time to meet their daughters.