HC takes note of Khagaria dist judge confining his daughter

The Patna High Court today took

suo motu cognisance of a report of alleged confinement of a woman by her father, a district and sessions judge of Khagaria and ordered her production before the chief justice tomorrow.

Taking note of the report, a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad asked police to escort the woman along with her parents and produce her before the chief justice in his chamber tomorrow afternoon at 2.15 pm.

The court passed the order taking note of a news report uploaded on a news app 'Bar & Bench.'

"We direct the Patna senior superintendent of police to constitute a team of officers which should include at least two lady officers to proceed to the district in question (Khagaria) during the course of the day and escort the corpus, if desired by her along with her parents, and produce her before us in our chambers at 2.15 pm in the afternoon tomorrow (26.06.2018)," the division bench said in its order.

 

The judges also appointed high court advocate Anukriti Jaipuriryar, who was present in the court, as amicus curiae (an impartial adviser to a court of law in a particular case) to assist the court in the matter, the order said.

The amicus curiae would "interact with the corpus" and find out her difficulties to put her case effectively.

It also directed the Patna senior superintendent of police to take action in the matter, keeping in view the nature of the material available in the report.

"We are not at present inclined to take the assistance of the police officers of the district who are dealing with the matter," the bench said, while requesting Bihar Advocate General Lalit Kishore to convey its order to the police.

As per the 'Bar & Bench' report, 24-year-old Yashaswini is a law graduate from Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna.

She was allegedly thrashed and confined at her Khagaria residence by her father Subhash Chandra Chaurasia, who is Khagaria's district and sessions judge, and other members of her family for being in a relationship with one Siddharth Bansal, a lawyer based in Delhi.

The judge and his wife even physically assaulted their daughter, while Bansal was made to listen to her cries over the phone, the report claimed.

Yashaswini confirmed to 'Bar & Bench' that she was being confined at home by her parents.

Bansal, who practises at the Supreme Court, graduated from the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

The two had first met in 2012 at the Saket Court complex while she was interning with an NGO, the report said.

Yashaswini was to write the Delhi Judicial Services Exam on May 6 this year but had to miss the papers as her mother found her interacting with Bansal the day before.

Her mother was apprehensive that Yashaswini would meet Bansal again, it said.

As per the report, Bansal on May 25 met District Judge Subhash Chandra Chaurasia, who is reported to have said that he does not have any opposition to their inter-caste marriage.

However, he (the judge) insisted that Bansal become a civil servant or a judge to be eligible to wed Yashaswini.

Bansal's assurances that he could support Yashaswini while continuing as an advocate did not impress the district judge.

The judge instead took down his family details for further verification. "He also abused me," the report quoted Bansal as saying.