VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has clarified that when a major woman voluntarily marries a person of her choice and decides to live with her husband, it does not amount to illegal detention.
The HC stated that major woman has right to choose her partner. The court further ruled that habeas corpus petitions are not maintainable in such cases.
A division bench comprising Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy and Justice Gedela Tuhin Kumar dismissed a petition filed by the parents of a young woman, who alleged that their daughter was being illegally confined by a man named Anand Babu.
The parents approached the court stating that their daughter, a second-year B.Tech student at a private institute in Amaravati, had gone missing and sought directions to produce her before the court. They also alleged that Anand Babu had unlawfully detained her.
Acting on the petition, the court directed the police to trace and produce the woman. During the hearing, the woman informed the bench that she had willingly fallen in love with Anand Babu and had married him of her own consent.
She asserted that she was not under any form of coercion and expressed her desire to continue living with her husband.
The court interacted with the woman and was satisfied that she was a major and capable of making her own decisions.