HC slams parents, cops, doctors for trying to declare woman unstable

New Delhi: The high court on Tuesday severely castigated the parents of a 23-year-old woman for trying to declare her mentally unstable and also came down heavily on the Delhi Police for facilitating the “illegality” of forcibly taking her away from her adopted home.

A bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and C. Hari Shankar provided immediate police protection to the “clear and coherent” young woman and the music teacher couple with whom she has been living for the last five years.

“She is your own daughter, how can you do this to her? She is an adult, you cannot force her,” the court said as it directed the parents to undertake they would “not interfere with their daughter’s peaceful life or subject her to any trauma or distress”.

The stern observations came on a habeas corpus plea moved by the teacher couple. They alleged that the young woman was forcibly taken away from their home on the evening of June 11 by her parents, who were accompanied by a doctor and two medical staffers from the Vidya Sagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences as well as a policeman from the Malviya Nagar police station.

The petitioners said the assaulters who vandalised their home, beat them up and took away their student after injecting her with a syringe.

After the couple filed the plea, the high court had directed the police on Monday to ensure the woman was present before the bench Tuesday.

The judges termed as “beyond comprehension” the manner in which the medical professionals acted in the case and directed all of them to file affidavits explaining their conduct and to be personally present on the next date of hearing.