M A I N   N E W S

Mother wants to withdraw Simran case, SC says no
S.S. Negi
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 14
In a new twist to the case pertaining to the custody of Simran, a 13-year-old girl from Amritsar sought to be produced before the Supreme Court, which had found that the girl produced earlier was not the “real” child, her mother made a dramatic statement before it seeking withdrawal of the case.

Simran’s mother, Ms Nirmaljit Kaur, submitted through her counsel H.M. Singh yesterday that she did not want to contest the case any more as she was making efforts for resolving the dispute with her in-laws. The in-laws were accused by Ms Nirmaljit Kaur of forcibly taking the child away from her after her husband’s death in 1997, then sending her to the USA and producing another child before the court when it had so demanded.

But a Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshaman, apparently suspecting that the widow was some sort of pressure, refused her permission to withdraw the case and directed that she should personally appear before it after a week so that the court could have a direct interaction with her on the issue.

Ms Nirmaljit Kaur, who had been fighting for the custody of Simran all these years right from lower courts to the apex court, made a volte-face yesterday even as the court was still to see the real child and her passport.

As the court persisted that why she wanted to withdraw the case, Mr H.M. Singh merely said he would not like to have open hearing of the matter as after the court’s last order passed in December for the production of the child, who was allegedly taken to the USA in 2000, Ms Nirmaljit Kaur was being “harassed”.

At one stage, to a persistent query by the court as who was harassing the widow, Mr H.M. Singh even went on to say that she was being “threatened”. But later he submitted that she was being “harassed by the media” after the court’s last order.

The apex court in its judgement passed in December had imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on her brother-in-law (husband’s brother) Gurcharan Singh Batra, his wife Harbans Kaur, nephew Arminderjit Singh, who had allegedly taken Simran to the USA and his wife Ranjit Kaur for committing contempt of court by producing another child of the same age named Harsimran before it to prove that she was the real Simran.

After Ms Nirmaljit Kaur had submitted that the child produced was not her daughter, the court had ordered DNA test of her, which had failed to establish that the produced child’s was her real daughter.

The Bench said: “Unless we are sure that she (Ms Nirmaljit Kaur) is not being threatened, we will not allow the withdrawal of the case.” When the court asked counsel for the other side whether they had brought real child, Ms Nirmaljit Kaur’s counsel insisted on withdrawal of the case.

Ms Nirmaljit Kaur had in her petition alleged that her in-laws had got a “fabricated” will executed.