The Patna High Court on Tuesday freed a girl who was locked up by her father at his residence at Khagaria in Bihar for the last several days, objecting to her relationship with a Supreme Court lawyer.
The court directed Patna-based Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) to accommodate the 24-year-old law graduate at its guest house. The girl had graduated from the CNLU and was practising in the Supreme Court. The court said she was free to meet anyone during her stay at the CNLU guest house and ordered the Patna police to provide her security. The identity of the girl and her father should be protected.
It set the next date of hearing for July 12.
A division bench of the Patna High Court comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad had taken suo motu cognisance of a report published in the legal news portal Bar & Bench on June 22 and directed the Patna police to produce the girl in court on Tuesday. She was brought to the chambers of the Chief Justice on Tuesday afternoon, where she narrated her ordeal.
The court appointed advocate Anukriti Jaipuriyar as amicus curiae in the matter.
The report published in the legal news portal said the girl’s father, himself a judge, was unhappy with her relationship with the lawyer belonging to another caste. The girl had met the Supreme Court lawyer in Delhi during her internship in 2012.
