Raghvendra Upadhaya And Others vs State Of U P And Others

Court No. - 34

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 3234 of 2015 Petitioner :- Raghvendra Upadhaya and others Respondent :- State of U.P. and others Counsel for Petitioner :- R.S. Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.

Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.

1. Petitioner-1 is father of two minor children Shreeyash and Shreyanshi and is aggrieved by order dated 28.12.2014 whereby District Probation Officer, Varanasi has directed Station In- charge Officer, Badagaon, District Varanasi to ensure presence of aforesaid children before Child Welfare Committee, Varanasi. It is contended that petitioner-1 being natural guardian cannot be directed to produce his children before the said Body and District Probation Officer in any case has no authority or jurisdiction to pass such an order, hence a writ of certiorari has been prayed for quashing the order dated 28.12.2014.

2. In the counter affidavit, reference has been made to Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 and Rules framed thereunder, but it is not the case of respondents that aforesaid children are involved in any crime and, therefore, learned Standing Counsel could not explain as to how the said Act is attracted in the case in hand. It is, however, submitted that petitioner-1 himself has approached authorities concerned for custody of minor children since children are in the custody of respondent-6, maternal granduncle of children, but if that be so, remedy lies to petitioner under the provisions of Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 1956") and for that reason also, no order could have been passed by respondent-2 and impugned order and proceedings initiated by District Probation Officer are patently illegal.

3. In view of above, the writ petition is allowed. Impugned order dated 28.12.2014 is hereby set aside. However, it is made clear that we have not expressed any opinion with regard to alleged custody of minor children and petitioner in this regard may avail remedy as available in law.

Order Date :- 8.11.2017 PS