Mumbai: A Muslim man has approached the Bombay High Court seeking immediate release of his partner, a Hindu woman, from a protection home in Mumbai alleging that she has been illegally detained. The man has also sought “adequate police protection” apprehending threat to his and his partner’s life.
According to the man’s plea, the couple were in a live-in relationship, and his partner was illegally detained at the Shaskriya Stree Bhishekari Khikar Kendra (Government Women’s Hostel) in Chembur. This is “unlawful and violation of her fundamental rights”, the plea contends. It alleges that jis partner has been detained at the shelter home allegedly on instructions of the police following complaints by her parents and various third parties.
“The interference by the detenue’s parents and third parties… amounts to moral policing and unconstitutional interference with the detenue’s personal liberty, which has been categorically disapproved by the judiciary in various precedents,” the plea read.
The woman had left her parental home voluntarily and was living with the petitioner in a consensual live-in relationship for several months, claimed the petition filed through advocates Abid Abbas Sayyed and Asif Shaikh. The woman’s decision to live with the petitioner was an “informed, and deliberate choice”, made without any coercion, undue influence or external pressure, the plea adds.
The woman’s notarised affidavit and her self-recorded video has been placed on record along with the petition to show that she and the man have been living as a couple for several months of their own free will and without any coercion. In the video, the woman has stated that she chose to marry the man and convert to Islam “of her own free will, without any coercion or undue influence”.
Seeking her immediate release from the shelter home, the petition states that she has not neither committed any crime nor is accused of any offence. “The act of placing detenu in the Shaskriya Stree Bhishekari Khikar Kendra a Government Women Center (Hostel), Chembur, Mumbai despite her clear and repeated expressions of her free will and autonomy amounts to a violation of her right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the plea adds.
The plea also alleged “abuse of power and malafide action” on the part of the police for ignoring the woman’s letter and detaining her at the shelter home.
The petition prays that the court direct the immediate release of the woman and direct the police to provide protection to the petitioner and his family to ensure their safety. The plea will come up for hearing in due course of time.
