SC comes to the rescue of daughter of Raj HC judge

The Supreme Court today came to the rescue of the daughter of a sitting Rajasthan High Court judge, allegedly restrained by him from marrying her boy friend, by asking the state police to hand her over to her companion.

"Keeping in view her welfare and the fact that she has already attained majority, we say that she is at liberty to take her own future decisions," a bench comprising justices H L Dattu and C Nagappan said after recording the statement of the girl who said she wanted to marry Siddharth Mukherjee.

Mukherjee had filed the petition alleging that Justice Raghvendra Singh Rathore, a judge of the Rajasthan High Court, was averse to his daughter's plan to marry him as he did not belong to their caste and had put his 30-year-old daughter under house arrest.

The bench directed the authorities at Gandhinagar police station in Jaipur to hand over the girl to Mukherjee and gave them the liberty to approach the apex court in case any "inconvenience" is caused to them.

During the hearing, it said, "We informed her in the beginning that she is free to make a statement and assured her of the protection from the court.

"She states (in the statement to the top court) that she does not have any ill will against anybody and wanted to marry the petitioner."

The bench then disposed of the petition with a direction to the police to allow her to go to Mukherjee.

Earlier, the court had issued a notice on the plea and asked the state police to produce the girl before it on December 16.

The girl had last month written emails to Supreme Court and Rajasthan High Court judges seeking help.