IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CR. WJC No.1146 of 2010 RANJANA SHUKLA, wife of Ajay Kumar Gupta, daughter of Uma Shankar Shukla, resident of Rampurwa, P.O. and P.S. Mainatand, District West Champaran … … Petitioner Versus 1. THE STATE OF BIHAR 2. The Superintendent of Police, Bettiah (West Champaran) 3. The Officer-in-charge, Mainatand, West Champaran 4. The Superintendent, Remand Home( After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna City 5. Uma Shankar Shukla, son of Bindyachal Shukla, resident of Rampurwa, P.O. and P.S. Mainatand, West Champaran 6. Ajay Kumar Gupta, son of Saryug Prasad, resident of Mainatand, P.O. and P.S. Mainatand, District West Champaran … … Respondents For the petitioner: Shri Rakesh Prabhat, Adv. For the State: Shri R.C.P.Bhart, S.C.-14 Shri Md. Aslam Ansari,A.C. to S.C.-14 ----------- 4. 22.11.2010 Like several similar criminal writ application, this application has also been filed by the petitioner Ranjana Shukla for a direction to the respondents to release her from judicial custody and allow her to live with her husband Ajay Kumar Gupta with whom she has solemnized her marriage as per her own desire. The facts disclosed in the writ application are that respondent no. 6 used to give tuition to the petitioner and with the passage of time they started liking each other and fell in love. When her parents came to know this, they raised serious objections to it but the petitioner and respondent no. 6 continued with their relationship. They used to meet each other and talk on phone. The parents of the petitioner, in order to restrain the respondent no. 6, caught him, tied his hands and legs and kept him in confinement at their residence. The petitioner has stated in this application as well as in her statement recorded under 2 section 164 Cr. P.C. that when all family members went to sleep, she untied the hands and legs of respondent no. 6 and both of them eloped to Gujarat. After seventeen days of their elopement, the father of the petitioner reported this matter to Mainatand Police Station and a case being Mainatand P.S.Case No. 14 of 2010 under Section 364A/34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered and on account of mounting pressure on the family members of respondent no. 6 due to institution of circumstantial case the petitioner and her husband had to surrender on 27.3.2010 before the Superintendent of Police, Bettiah. Both of them were taken into custody, the petitioner was sent for medical examination for ascertainment of her age which was determined above nineteen years. On 29.3.2010 , her statement was recorded under Section 164 Cr. P.C. where she disclosed her age 19 years, as ascertained in medical report being above nineteen years. she was remanded to Remand Home( After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna City on 30.3.2010 by the orders passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bettiah and since 30.3.2010, she is in confinement at Remand Home( After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna City. The husband of the petitioner who had been arrested, in the meantime was granted bail by the High Court, considering all the facts which have been stated by the petitioner in this writ application as also in her statement under Section 164 Cr. P.C. So far as her age is concerned, the medical report is there in support of this fact that she is major. The facts disclosed, indicate that there was no 3 reason to send the petitioner to Remand Home by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bettiah. She was a major girl and free to decide her course of life. She wanted to live with her husband respondent no. 6 and she chose to marry him. When they are majors, solemnized their marriage, now they are legally entitled to live as wife and husband. They have freedom to live with each other and no court could have passed any order to live separately unless there would have been any lawful reasons for it. There was, in f act, no lawful reason for keeping the petitioner in confinement at Remand Home. Since there was no lawful reason for detaining the petitioner and she has been produced in Court today from Remand Home(After Care Home), Gaighat, Patna City by the Superintendent of Remand Home, on the orders of this court dated 19.11.2010, she is directed to go with her husband or whoever has come to take her, from the court itself. However, she will go to her husband after completing all the formalities, as required, at the Remand Home( After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna City. In the result, this writ application is allowed. Kanth ( Mridula Mishra, J.) ( Dharnidhar Jha, J.)