ORDER MISS TALLAT YAQUB, J. - This habeas corpus petition was filed by one Mst. Zubeda Bibi who claimed to be the mother of Mst.
Mehraj Bibi who was lodged in Darul-Aman on 4-10-1995 by the Chief Reporter of Daily Sadaqat Lahore.
2. Notice to the incharge Darul-Aman was issued to produce Mst. Mehraj Bibi who is present in Court. She states that she does not want to go with her parents and instead wants to accompany her "paramour" present outside the Court. The question which arises is as to whether a sui-juris girl can be allowed to accompany her paramour in preference to here parents.
3. This question for the first time arose in Fateh Sher Vs. Sarang (PLD 1971 Lah. 128) Mr. Justice Muhammad Afzal Cheema(as he then was) dismissed the petition of the paramour by observing as follows:- '"I am not, therefore, inclined to allowed this petition in exercise of my discretionary jurisdiction which would virtually amount to give this course blessings to the immoral activities of two unscrupulous persons who, in Islam are liable to extreme penalty". .
In Shoukat Ali Vs. Altaf Hussan Qureshi & another (1972 Supreme Court Monthly Review 398), a Division Bench of the Supreme Court held that the Courts do not function in vacuum and must take due note of the social and moral environments prevailing in the community for which the law is to be administered.
4. I am of the considered view that the detenue cannot be allowed to go and live with her paramour. We have to take into account the social environment prevailing in a Muslim community.
A young unmarried girl cannot be allowed to live with a person who is completely stranger to her.
Our society is definitely not a society where young girls are allowed to move freely with their paramours. Although Mst. Mehraj Bibi is sui-juris and can go wherever she likes but in a case of the present nature I do not think proper that her custody should be given to her paramour instead of her parents. I, therefore, direct the petitioner to live with her mother who is present in Court.
With this observation, this petition is accepted and the petitioner is directed to live with her mother.