A Supreme Court Bench composed of the Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna, and V Ramasubramanian has recently turned down a Habeas Corpus Plea made by a spiritual guru. The plea called for the guru’s 21-year-old “spiritual partner” to be freed from her parents’ custody. This plea was filed after the Kerala High Court gave a judgment on January 20 that refused to release his “spiritual partner.” Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who represents the 41yr old spiritual guru said that the girl who is sound of mind is being illegally detained by her parents when she is a grown adult. The petitioner side proved that she was sound of mind by saying she was a gold medallist in her college so if she wants to stay with the guru it is her choice. However, the CJI disagreed with this by stating that there was no case of illegal detention since she was in the custody of her parents. The Court also said that it is better if the girl stayed with her parents since the guru was already married and had two children. The guru was also accused of child sexual assault against a 14yr old in 2013, but the complaint was withdrawn. Looking into this is how the Court came to its judgment.
