Mukerji, J.

[1] This is an application by three persons, Gopal Ji, Laxmi Devi and Radha Krishna, under Section 491, Criminal P. C., as also under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Article 226 has apparently been added because the prayer which has been made is a prayer that is generally made in applications for 'habeas corpus'. The prayer is that a writ of 'habeas corpus' be issued to set at liberty Gopal Ji and Laxmi Devi, applicants Nos. 1 and 2, from illegal detention and illegal custody of the opposite parties.

[2] The allegations on which this application was founded were that Gopal Ji and Laxmi Devi are two minor children of applicant No. 3, Radha Krishna. Gopal Ji is a boy of about six years, while Laxmi Devi is a little girl of about two years of age. The mother of these two minor children suddenly died of cholera on 2-11-1953 at the Colvin Hospital, and that Shri Chand and Kamta Prasad, the opposite parties, thereafter took away the two minor children to their house, that the opposite parties have refused to send back the children to their father and they are demanding a sum of Rs. 500/- as a kind of ransam for sending back these children.

In the affidavit it