There has to be a limit in taking liberties with courts: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: In a bizzare case, mother of a rape convict on Monday pleaded with the Supreme Court to allow her to take custody of a child born to the rape survivor from her son’s sexual assault, a request that made CJI D Y Chandrachud squirm and wonder about the limitless ambit of habeas corpus petitions filed in constitutional courts.
Not stopping at seeking custody of the child, who is two years-old now and with the biological mother, the rapist’s mother also pleaded with the SC to release her son on parole from jail to facilitate his marriage with the survivor. The CJI-led bench said, “Your son is convicted of rape. This child was born out of the sexual assault. There has to be some limit in taking liberties with the court by filing such absurd habeas corpus petitions.”
The Uttarakhand HC had dealt with the petitioner’s plea elaborately and recorded that her son was convicted of sexual assault under the IPC as well as under the Pocso Act. Justice Ravindra Maithani of the HC had in July last year rejected the rapist’s plea to marry the minor girl whom he had assaulted. He had said, “The mother of the accused seeks custody of the child delivered out of rape committed by her son. Not only this, the petitioner also wants that her son be released on parole so that he may marry the victim. Is it not adding injury to the victim?”
Refusing to grant any relief, the HC had said, “Even calling an accused (from jail), so that he may marry the victim of rape would be nothing but causing further humiliation to the victim. It would be an act of adding injury to her agony; to the trauma, which she has already undergone.”