The Supreme Court Friday, October 18, closed proceedings in a habeas corpus petition filed by a man who alleged that his two daughters were being held captive at Sadhguru’s Isha Yoga Foundation in Coimbatore, and said that the women had informed they were living there “voluntarily and without any coercion”.
A three-judge bench presided by CJI D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the Madras HC has exceeded its jurisdiction by keeping the matter alive even after it recorded the statements of the two women, aged 39 and 42. They had joined the ashram when they were aged 24 and 27, the bench said. The bench was hearing an appeal by the foundation challenging a Madras HC order directing the police to report on criminal cases registered against it. On October 3, the SC had transferred to itself the habeas corpus petition based on which the HC issued the direction, and directed the TN police to submit a report in pursuance of HC order. While perusing the status report submitted by the TN Police, Justice Pardiwala told senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the state government, “we are today only concerned with an order which was passed by the HC in a habeas corpus petition, where statements were recorded of the two corpus. At the end of that, the HC should have closed the matter. Instead, the HC proceeded.