This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution and section 491 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the issue of a writ in the nature of habeas corpus directing the respondents to restore to liberty one Miss Janaki Varadan who is shown as the petitioner. It is stated that because she is unlawfully detained and physically restrained at a house called “the Crags” in Sesharinpuram, Bangalore, by her father, she is unable to make an affidavit herself. The affidavit in support of the petition is, therefore, sworn to by one Rajmohan Gandhi.

The respondents are the Commissioner of Police of the Madras City and Janaki’s father C. Varadan. At the commencement of the hearing of this case on ‘25th October, 1966, Mr. Seshadri stated that as no relief is sought against the first respondent (the Commissioner of Police of Madras City) in the petition, he gives upthe said first respondent. We, therefore, directed that the name of the first respondent do stand deleted from the cause title. The controversy in the case, therefore, is now between Rajmohan Gandhi, deponent to the affidavit in support of the petition and the second respondent C. Varadan, father of Janaki.

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