The Delhi High Court on Tuesday severely castigated the parents of a 23-year-old woman for trying to declare her mentally unstable and also came down heavily on the Delhi Police for facilitating the “illegality” of forcibly taking her away from her adopted home.
A Bench of Justices S.Muralidhar and C.Hari Shankar provided immediate police protection to the “clear and coherent” young woman and the music teacher couple with whom she has been living for the last five years.
“She is your own daughter, how can you do this to her? She is an adult, you cannot force her,” the court said as it directed the parents to undertake that they would “not interfere with their daughter's peaceful life or subject her to any trauma or distress”.
Habeas corpus plea
The stern observations came on a habeas corpus plea moved by the teacher couple. They alleged that the young woman was forcibly taken away from their home on the evening of June 11 by her parents, who were accompanied by a doctor and two medical staffers from the Vidya Sagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (VIMHANS) as well as a policeman from the Malviya Nagar police station.
The petitioners said they also vandalised their home, beat them up and took away their student. After the couple filed the plea, the HC had directed the police on Monday to ensure the woman was present before the Bench on Tuesday.
The judges termed as “beyond comprehension” the manner in which the medical professionals acted in the case and directed all of them to file affidavits explaining their conduct and to be personally present on the next date of hearing.
Visibly upset with the parents for forcibly taking their adult daughter away and admitting her to a psychiatric hospital, the Bench turned down their plea asking the woman to return with them.
Police pulled up
They were warned that doing so would lead to contempt action against them. She should be allowed to live a peaceful life and the parents should not interfere with her wish, the court said.
The Bench also pulled up Delhi Police for “acting in a manner that clearly facilitated an illegality” of an adult person being taken away against her will.
It ordered an enquiry, directly supervised by the police commissioner and led by a deputy commissioner, into the manner in which the officers of Malviya Nagar police station acted.
It noted that the petitioners, the music teacher and his wife, who also teaches music, had informed the Malviya Nagar police station on the morning of June 11 that the woman's parents might try to forcibly take her away.
But the police did nothing to protect them, it noted.
