Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has ruled that an adult woman has the right to live independently, and there’s no law that can force her to live with her in-laws or parents. The decision came as a bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M.S. Raman dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a mother seeking to locate her adult daughter and force her to return home.
The court noted that the woman, who is married, had left her in-laws’ house of her own accord and was living elsewhere. Her marital dispute case is pending in a civil court. When she appeared at a police station in 2024, she stated that she wasn’t interested in living with her in-laws or parents, and was instead living alone and supporting herself financially.
The mother had filed the habeas corpus petition, expressing concern about her daughter’s well-being, as she hadn’t heard from her in over a year. However, the court clarified that the woman wasn’t being held against her will, and had simply chosen to live independently after attaining adulthood.
The High Court ultimately dismissed the petition, stating that a habeas corpus petition couldn’t be used to gather information or evidence in this context, and that the woman’s decision to live independently was not obstructed by any law.