Interfaith Marriage| Kerala High Court Dismisses Habeas Plea Moved By Husband Finding Wife Feared Ill-Treatment From His Parents

The Kerala High Court recently dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a husband seeking the production of his wife in an interfaith marriage finding that the wife had grave apprehensions about her safety at the petitioner's residence. 

A Division Bench of Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran dismissed the petition filed by the husband contending that his wife has been illegally confined by her father. 

"The alleged detenue would state that she was not subjected to any torture, whatsoever. Even when the alleged detenue would express that she is desirous of living with the petitioner, she fears that she would be ill-treated by the parents of the petitioner." 

The Court also found that the wife was 'ambivalent in her stand' and that she was confused between her desire to be with the petitioner and her serious apprehension and fear of being ill-treated by his parents.

According to the petitioner, he and the alleged detenue belonged to different religions, and they registered their marriage under the Special Marriage Act without informing their parents.

However, he alleged that less than one month into the marriage, his wife stopped contacting him. Suspecting illegal detention by her father, he lodged a complaint before the jurisdictional police but to no avail. Therefore, he moved this writ petition. 

When the matter initially came up for consideration, the Court had directed the Station House Officer to get a statement of the alleged detenue by a Woman Civil Police Officer in the absence of her parents or any other family members.

According to the statement produced thereby, the wife stated that she was planning to stay with the petitioner at his residence after a month from the marriage since her mother was alone at her place. However, the news of their marriage broke out soon, and both the families were unwilling to accept the relationship. 

She submitted in her statement that her husband's family would never permit them to live together and that she was apprehensive of her safety at his house. The wife also admitted that hse e was not under any illegal detention by her parents and that she was not subjected to torture either.

The Bench noted that she had categorically stated that she was not under any illegal detention of her parents.

Therefore, it dismissed the plea finding that it was not in a position to pass any order enabling the alleged detenue to live along with the petitioner.

Advocates P.T Sheejish, Parvathy S. Krishnan, P.K. Purush, Harikiran, Praveenkumar P, Stephy Grace Raj, Akhila Sridharan and A. Abdul Rahman appeared for the petitioner. The respondents were represented by Public Prosecutor E.C. Bineesh. 

Case Title: Sharafudheen V.T v. State of Kerala & Ors. 

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 260

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