Can a mother force her adult daughter to stay in touch? Orissa High Court delivers a powerful reality check

Orissa High Court news: The Orissa High Court recently dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a mother seeking to trace her adult daughter, noting that a major woman has the right to live independently and cannot be compelled by law to remain in contact with her parents or in-laws.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman passed the order on March 9 and declined to allow the plea.

“The writ in the nature of habeas corpus cannot be used as a tool for fishing out and/or gathering evidence,” the high court said.

Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman said that a habeas corpus petition cannot be used as a tool for fishing out or gathering evidence in such cases.

What was the case?

• The petitioner approached the high court alleging that the whereabouts of her daughter had been unknown to the family for more than a year.
• Expressing concern about her daughter’s safety and existence, the mother sought the court’s intervention through a habeas corpus petition.
• During the hearing, the state informed the court that the woman had already appeared before a police station in 2024 and clearly conveyed that she did not wish to live either in her matrimonial home or with her parents.
• According to the state, she had chosen to live independently and was capable of supporting herself.
• The petitioner submitted that as a mother, she was concerned about her daughter and wanted to know her whereabouts.

Court’s observations

• It appears that the daughter of the petitioner is married and, in fact, a proceeding for restitution of the conjugal rights at the behest of the younger woman’s husband and a petition for divorce at the behest of the petitioner’s daughter are pending before the civil court.
• It further appears from the averments that the daughter left the matrimonial house of her own and is, therefore, living at a distant place.
• The writ in the nature of habeas corpus cannot be used as a tool for fishing out and/or gathering evidence.
• 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.
• She is capable of making decisions in 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 writ of habeas corpus cannot be used as a forum to achieve something which is not permissible and, therefore, the writ petition is dismissed.

What Gujarat High Court said

• Earlier this year, the Gujarat High Court dismissed a habeas corpus writ filed by a man, contending that his daughter was being held in illegal confinement by a man, while observing that a woman who had turned 18 had “attained the age to choose a person of her choice as a life partner”.
• Dismissing the father’s petition, the court said, “…it is true that (the corpus) is more than 18 years of age and it is obvious that she has attained the age to choose a person of her choice as a life partner and live a married life. Hence, the writ petition cannot be entertained and the same is dismissed.”

Habeas corpus plea

A habeas corpus petition (literally “you must have the body”) is a fundamental legal action or writ ordering a detaining authority to bring a person before a judge to determine if their detention is lawful, aiming to prevent illegal confinement. It serves as a vital safeguard for individual liberty against arbitrary, unconstitutional, or unlawful arrest.