The Madras High Court has reunited a transgender person with his partner by ordering that the woman be released from her father’s unlawful custody, Live Law reported on Friday. The order was passed last week.
Justice V Bharathidasan and Nisha Banu noted that the couple’s relationship was both “protected and permitted under the Constitution”.
Kavin Thamizh and his partner Revathi, who have been together since 2018, had moved from Tamil Nadu’s Madurai city to Chennai in April this year. But in May, Revathi’s parents went to Chennai with some police officers and took her away, according to Live Law.
After this, Thamizh moved the High Court challenging Revathi’s illegal detention and urged the judges to set her free.
A court has the power of habeas corpus, through which it can order the authorities to produce before it any individual who has been reportedly illegally detained. The court can then ascertain the authenticity of a petition demanding the release of a such an individual and set them free.
On August 11, the Madras High Court heard Revathi as well as her father. The woman told the court that she wanted to live with Thamizh instead of her father. On the other hand, the father said he was against the relationship.
Two days later, the court ordered that the woman be set free. “Considering the fact that the detenue Revathi is a major and she is willing to go with the petitioner [Thamizh] on her own volition, we set the detenue at liberty and permitted her to go along with the petitioner,” the judges said, according to Live Law.
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