Decision to choose partner rests on individual; State, society can't intrude: Bombay High Court rejects Habeas Corpus plea by major girl's father The Aurangabad Bench observed that the intimacies of marriage, including individual choices on whether or not or whom to marry, lie outside the control of the State which constitutional courts need to safeguard.The State or society cannot intrude into the right of an individual to choose his/ her marital partner and that decision rests solely on the individual, the Bombay High Court recently said while rejecting a Habeas Corpus petition filed by the father of a woman (Junned Ahmed Mujib Khan v. State of Maharashtra). The observation was made by a Bench of Justices VK Jadhav and SD Kulkarni in a petition by Junned Ahmed Mujib Khan, the petitioner, seeking directions to produce his daughter Khaleda Subiya in Court and to handover her custody to him.The daughter was a minor at the time when she went missing though she had attained the majority by the time the case was heard. The petitioner nevertheless asked the Court to invoke its 'parens patriae' jurisdiction on the ground that even though the missing girl is now major, she is a vulnerable adult.The Court also interacted with the girl in open court and examined her statement wherein she clearly stated that she wanted to continue living with her husband and not with her parents. The Court also interacted with the girl in open court and examined her statement wherein she clearly stated that she wanted to continue living with her husband and not with her parents.The Court relied upon Supreme Court judgments, particularly the judgment in Hadiya case, to hold that Court that parens patriae doctrine has to be exercised only in exceptional situations in case of persons who are incapable of asserting free will such as minors or persons of unsound mind.The parens patriae jurisdiction of the Court should not transgress into an area of determining the suitability of the partners to a marital tie, the court said .The strength of our Constitution lies in its acceptance of the plurality and diversity of our culture", the Court said.