CHENNAI: A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the police not to arrest the close relatives, mostly parents of the boys, who elope with girls, as such an arrest would amount to committing a social wrong.
The Bench of Justices C T Selvam and N Sathish Kumar, which gave the direction to this effect, ordered the immediate release of the mother of a boy who eloped with a minor girl in Namakkal district.
“All too frequently parents and relatives of boys are, without a second thought, arrayed as accused in cases registered against boys and girls going missing and most commonly owing to love affairs... they are taken into custody. In many a case, this would amount to a social wrong at the hands of the police agency, whose very raison d’etre is serving a social cause,” the Bench said. It directed the Pallipalayam police inspector to produce the girl, who is said to be just 17 years and 11 months old, in the court and posted the matter for further hearing on March 28.
Bench also directed the Registry to forward a copy of this order to the DGP towards sensitising the force to the wrongful action in such matters.
“This court is not to be understood as informing that in no cases shall relatives of accused be proceeded against. This court only wishes to impress upon all the need for caution before doing so,” the Bench said, while passing orders on a habeas corpus writ petition from Govindaraj, who alleged that S Yuvan Shankar (19) had abducted his minor daughter and both had been missing since February 13 last.
The local police arrested the boy’s mother S Jayanthi, who is still in the Central Prison for Women in Salem. The court directed the Salem jail superintendent to forthwith release Jayanthi on her own bond for Rs 5,000.