Based on a story by Bar & Bench, the Patna High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the confinement of a woman by her father, a District Judge in Bihar.
The judge in question, Subhash Chandra Chaurasia, is a District and Sessions Judge from Khagaria district.
He has placed his law graduate daughter under house arrest to prevent her from meeting her lover, Siddharth, who is a lawyer based in Delhi.
The incident which was first reported by NewsCentral, was reported by Bar & Bench on June 22.
The High Court has now taken note of the story by Bar & Bench on the same and titled the case as “Based on the news item uploaded on the website of News App Bar and Bench vs. State of Bihar & Ors.
The case is listed as item 1 in the court of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad.
A graduate of the Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna, the woman confirmed to Bar & Bench that she was being confined at home by her parents.
Her lover (Siddharth), who practices at the Supreme Court, graduated from the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. The two first met in 2012 at the Saket Court complex while she was interning with an NGO.
The woman was due to take her Delhi Judicial Services Exam on May 6 this year. However, after her mother saw the duo interacting the day before, she was not allowed to write the exam. Apparently, her mother was apprehensive that she would meet Siddharth again.
Before departing for Bihar, Siddharth received a round of verbal abuse from the woman’s mother. After mother and daughter returned home on May 8, Siddharth received a call from the detained woman, during which he could hear her getting thrashed by her mother. After the call was disconnected, her mother called him again to warn him to stay away from her daughter.
To drive the point home, a third call was made mirroring the first, with only the daughter’s cries being heard over the phone. Since then, she has reportedly been kept under house arrest by Chaurasia and his wife.
On May 25, Siddharth eventually met Chaurasia. During this meeting, Chaurasia is reported to have said that he does not have any opposition to their inter-caste marriage.
However, he insisted that Siddharth become a civil servant or a judge to be eligible for marriage to his daughter. Assurances made by Siddharth that he could support his daughter while continuing as an advocate, did not inspire much confidence. Instead, he says that the judge took down his family details for further verification.
Although Siddharth approached the National Commission for Women (NCW) on her behalf, there was little that could be done with the woman under house arrest. As per the report, police authorities also failed to act.
The woman had penned a statement which she shared with Bar & Bench. It states,
“As per the Supreme Court judgement, I have the right to choose my life partner and also…to choose [the] occupation which I want to pursue. I don’t want to take further action against my parents, which can harm their reputation. I want justice and [to] avail my fundamental rights and if it will not be possible then yes, I’m ready to fight for my rights even against my parents. It’s a humble request…please help me out to get justice.”
Image taken from here.