Chennai: In a heart-warming verdict that delved more into child psychology and societal responses to orphans than mere reading of the statute book, the Madras high court has restored to a 16-year-old girl her baby boy she had begotten after eloping with a man in Thoothukudi last year.
The baby had been taken away from Revathi (name changed) as she herself was sent to a government home and the 25-year-old man, P. Balamurugan, with whom she had eloped, was jailed under POCSO (protection of children from sexual offences) Act. The girl could not go back to her family possibly due to fear of rejection besides, her own mother had chosen to surrender the newborn to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) citing 'social stigma' because it was an 'illegitimate' child. Luckily for the young lovers, their families decided to unite them but that was not possible as they were still in state custody.
Consequently, Revathi's mother and Balamurugan's father filed separate habeas corpus petitions before the high court for direction to the police to produce the two and set them free.
Disposing of the HCPs after meeting both the families in the chambers, a division bench comprising Justices S. Vimala and T. Krishnavalli not only ordered Revathi's return to her family but also got her baby boy, now 10-months-old, restored to her, brushing aside the CWC argument that the baby had been declared 'legally free for adoption' at the expiry of 60 days since his grandmother had given him away.
Taking pains to go deep into the trauma of the two families, the court found that when the grandma had given the baby to the CWC, she had not expected he would be given away in adoption. Also, Revathi told the judges they had hoped to have the baby back once all the problems were sorted out. Well, that's what the court did now, ordering the CWC to send back Revathi to her mother, along with her little boy. The baby was handed over to the sobbing little mom in the chamber of Justice Vimala.
The court order itself makes a gripping reading, replete with human emotions. The judges in one place have recalled, quite aptly, Ellison's words: 'To part a woman from her child in a violent manner is a most dangerous step to take. It will so unstabilise her that she many emerge from the shattering experience as an entirely different personality".
In another portion of their order, the two women judges have reproduced the heart-wrenching portrait of an Iraqi girl in an orphanage, missing her mother, so she drew her on the floor and fell asleep inside her. As for the baby in this case, while the fellow has now got his little mom, it remains to be seen when 'law' will allow his father, being held for 'rape', will step out of prison and come back home.
