The Supreme Court today came to the rescue of a 19-year-old girl, who married against the wishes of her family, by ordering her release from Nari Niketan with a specific direction that she was at liberty to choose her way.
"She is set on liberty. Take her out from the exit gate (of the courtroom). Policemen have nothing to do. She can go anywhere," a bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha said.
The bench allowed the release of the girl after being fully satisfied with the documents which suggested that she was not a minor as claimed by her parents which formed the basis for the Rajasthan High Court to send her to Nari Niketan in Jaipur.
The girl was produced before the bench, also comprising justices Cyriac Joseph and R F Nariman, which had on Friday issued a notice to the Superintendent of Nari Niketan to produce her on the habeas corpus petition filed by her Ghaziabad-based husband whom she had married on June 16.
The girl, who told the bench that she had married against the wishes of her parents, was unable to reply about her date of birth saying she was uneducated to understand the questions.
However, her advocate submitted the girl's father had recorded her year of birth, in the missing report, as 1995 and as such she has already attained the age of majority.
Taking into account the facts mentioned in the police report, the bench set aside the High Court order and allowed her to go along with her husband who was present in the courtroom.
