This runaway teenager faced the ordeal of continuous physical assault by her mother for expressing the desire to study but the Delhi High Court on Thursday turned out to be her saviour as it directed the police to protect her and ensure her education in a government school.
The High Court also took an undertaking from her mother, a widow, that she would not come in the way of the education of her daughter, who was forced to drop out when she was in Class IX.
A Bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and C. Hari Shankar gave a patient hearing to both, the 17-year-old girl and her mother, before coming out with its directions. “The girl is not asking for any luxurious educational institution. She simply wants to study in a school. She will right away go to school and you should not stop her any more,” the Bench told her mother.
Girl flees from home
While the girl said she had fled from her house on May 2 as she was regularly beaten and made to work, the mother, who worked as a labourer, expressed her difficulty in meeting the day-to-day expenses after the death of her husband. It was the mother, who with the help of an advocate, had moved a plea in the High Court seeking help of the police to trace her daughter, who said she had left home to stay with her elder sister.
The girl, was recovered from the Chawri Bazar metro station as the mother had also approached the police with the case of her missing daughter.
‘Protect her liberty’
In the order, the High Court asked the senior police officers of the area to “take measures for her protection of life and liberty”. The case will now be taken up for hearing on June 23, when both the girl and her mother will have to remain present in the court.