Gujarat High Court Dismisses With Cost Husband's Habeas Corpus Plea To Trace Wife, For Suppressing Parallel Search Proceedings U/S 97 CrPC

The Gujarat High Court recently dismissed with costs, a habeas corpus petition filed by a husband for the production of his wife who was allegedly kidnapped by her relatives, on the ground that the husband has concealed the fact that he has already filed an application under section 97 (Search for persons wrongfully confined) of CrPC.The division bench of Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice Niral R. Mehta observed:“The factum of filing of proceedings of Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 02 of 2023 under section 97, CrPC was suppressed by the petitioner while filing this Habeas Corpus petition. The Court was not apprised of the proceedings under section 97 CrPC.”In the writ petition, the husband-petitioner alleged that the relatives of his wife (corpus) kidnapped her and forcefully confined her trying to solemnize a re-marriage of the corpus with another person.The APP for the State, Manan Mehta informed the Court that the corpus was brought by the Police. The counsel appearing for the petitioner, Himanshu Padhya submitted that the petitioner wants to withdraw the petition as the corpus has returned to his house and he has taken her custody before the competent court. The Court noted that before the issuance of notice in the writ petition i.e. February 2, 2023, an order under section 97 CrPC was issued by a competent court on February 1, 2023, and the same was suppressed by the petitioner while filing the habeas corpus petition. The court noted:“In course of hearing while an attempt was made pre-emting the proceedings by seeking withdrawal of the present application to perpetuate the suppression of the above fact of the parallel proceedings filed and the custody of the corpus obtained, the Police machinery had to activate itself and spend time and energy to produce the corpus from the custody of the petitioner before the Court. It was an aggravated fall-out of the suppression.”Accordingly, the court dismissed the habeas corpus petition and imposed a cost of Rs. 1500/- on the petitioner directing that amount should be paid to the Police Welfare Board, Gandhinagar within 10 days. Case Title: Pravinbhai Becharbhai Parmar (Thakor) v. State of GujaratCase Citation: 2023 Livelaw (Guj) 46Coram: Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice Niral R. Mehta Click Here to Read/Download Order

Gujarat High Court Dismisses With Cost Husband's Habeas Corpus Plea To Trace Wife, For Suppressing Parallel Search Proceedings U/S 97 CrPC

Udit Singh

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