Senior Advocate BB Naik, who appeared for the two girls, informed the Court that his clients have no objection to appear before it through video conferencing.
A division bench of Justices NV Anjaria and Niral Mehta proceeded to record Naik’s submission in the order but did not pass any order directing the two girls to appear.
“Senior Advocate BB Naik who appears for the corpora volunteered to make submission that though the corpora have no objection as such to appear before the Court through video conferencing arrangement, which may be envisaged in the facts of the case, at the same time it was submitted that the Court may first consider and decide their preliminary objection as regards territorial jurisdiction to try and entertain the present habeas corpus petition,” the bench noted in the order passed on February 6.
The Court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the father of the two girls way back in November 2019, alleging that the authorities have done little to bring back the girls or to even connect with them in Jamaica’s Kingston, where they are allegedly kept in confinement.
The plea by the father was filed seeking to know the whereabouts his daughters. A directive was also sought for bringing them back to India. He claimed that his two daughters went missing under ‘mysterious circumstances’ in November 2019.
He alleged that Swami Nithyananda, who is a respondent in the petition, has a major role in this case where his daughters were forcibly taken away and enticed for illegal purposes.
Source: Barandbench
