Orissa high court dismisses mother's habeas corpus plea to trace an adult daughter who chose to live independently

CUTTACK: The Orissa high court has held that the constitutional remedy of habeas corpus cannot be invoked merely to trace an adult who has chosen to stay away from both her matrimonial and parental homes.“The writ in the nature of habeas corpus cannot be used as a tool for fishing out and/or gathering evidence,” the division bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman observed in an order dated March 9 and uploaded on Tuesday.The ruling came while the Bench dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a mother seeking to ascertain the whereabouts of her adult daughter, holding that the woman had voluntarily chosen to live independently and was not under illegal confinement.

The bench added: “The writ of habeas corpus cannot be used as a forum to achieve something which is not permissible and, therefore, the writ petition is dismissed.”The mother had approached the court stating that the family had been unable to ascertain the whereabouts of her daughter, who is in her early twenties, for over a year and that they were worried about her existence.However, the state submitted that the woman had appeared before the concerned police station in Cuttack in 2024 and had clearly informed authorities that she did not wish to reside either in her matrimonial home or at her parental home and was living on her own while meeting her needs for sustenance.

The court noted that the woman had married earlier but left the matrimonial house on her own after a few months in 2024 and was currently residing at a different place. It also took note of ongoing matrimonial litigation between the couple before a civil court, including a petition for restitution of conjugal rights filed by the husband and a divorce petition filed by the woman.While acknowledging the concerns expressed by the petitioner, the bench underlined that the daughter had attained a majority and was capable of making decisions about her life.“Since the daughter is not in wrongful or illegal confinement and/or detention and if she has decided to live independently having attained majority, we do not find any impediment in such a decision to have been created,” the bench said.The court further held that the law cannot compel an adult to maintain contact with family members.“She is capable of taking a decision of her life and if she has decided to live on her own and intended to keep distance from the matrimonial home as well as the parental home, we do not find that the law would compel her to keep in touch with either in-laws or her parents,” the Bench said.