CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday expressed its shock and dismay over the increasing incidents of minor girls eloping with married and old persons. It is disheartening to know this shocking development in society. By such elopement, not only the family of the minor but also that of the offender, who is already married and having children, is affected. This kind of trend has become a challenge to society and also for families and it should be curtailed, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and V Baskaran said.
The bench was passing interim orders on a habeas corpus petition from the father of a Standard XII student who had eloped with a man aged 45, having a 10-year-old daughter, in June last. The maturity level of teenage girls is not as that of the adult as they may not be in a position to take a firm decision. They can be easily lured by kind words and sweet promises given by the third parties, who project themselves as caring persons.
Both the parents and school teachers should be aware of the problems of teenage girls and properly sensitise and advise them about luring of girls by third parties. Parents must necessarily interact with the minor girls openly about the problems and certainly warn them about the lurking problems. Unless parents and teachers communicate with children, this kind of situation cannot be avoided, the judges said adding that this is high time that the government come out with a counselling programme, both for the teenage children as well as their parents.
To put an end to this social evil, the bench suo-motu included the DGP and Social Welfare Secretary as party-respondents to the case and directed them to answer a set of nine questions including the number of minors either kidnapped or found eloped with their lovers in the past 10 years. The matter will be taken up again on November 8.
Ambulance staff restrained from going on strike
Chennai: A division bench of the High Court on Thursday restrained workers of ‘108’ ambulance service from going on strike for two days from November 5. A bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad granted the interim injunction. It made applicable the relevant portion of an order passed by the first bench of the High Court, presided over by the then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, on October 13, 2017 when workers resorted to a strike.
That order was passed on a PIL petition praying for a declaration that the proposed strike to be conducted by the workers association from 8 pm on October 17 to 8 pm on October 18, 2017 as illegal and for such other consequential orders. “It appears to have become an annual event for the associations to hold
the citizens of the State to ransom by giving strike calls on the day of Deepavali,” the bench had said.