Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 18
A person, who had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for his 80-year-old father’s release from his brothers’ custody, will end up paying Rs 50,000 costs to him. Justice Amol Rattan Singh imposed the costs on the person, a German citizen, for unnecessarily troubling his father to come to the court.
The petitioner had moved the court seeking a warrant officer’s appointment to produce his father before handing over his custody to him for “medical treatment and safety of life”. The petition was filed on a ground that the father had been illegally detained by his other two sons.
As the case came up for resumed hearing, Justice Singh observed the alleged detainee had been produced in the court. He appeared to be a “very old man”. Responding to a query, the elderly person stated he lived in Moga with his sons “wholly voluntary”.
Justice Singh observed the petitioner was admittedly living abroad. In response to another query whether he wished to live abroad with the petitioner, the father emphatically said no. The query was put to him through state counsel Ramdeep Partap Singh.
The Bench also referred to an affidavit by Moga SSP. Among other things, he stated the father’s statement was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. The alleged detainee categorically stated he had three sons, with the petitioner residing abroad for the past about 40 years. He had never provided daily necessities to him during the period.
The SSP added the statement of some persons in the locality made it clear that the alleged detainee was residing with one of his sons on his own accord and had never been detained as alleged in the petition. “Consequently, this petition is dismissed with costs of Rs 50,000 to be paid by the petitioner to the alleged ‘detainee’, who was unnecessarily troubled to come to the court, for no reason whatsoever,” the Bench concluded.
German citizen told to pay Rs 50K to father
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