Allahabad High Court stays compensation direction against the Uttar Pradesh Government in the case of two adult sisters who said they were confined by their father after embracing Islam, while leaving their release undisturbed.
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Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has stayed, until further orders, a Single Judge’s direction requiring the State of Uttar Pradesh to pay compensation in a habeas corpus matter concerning two adult sisters who said they had embraced Islam voluntarily and were thereafter confined at home by their father, while declining to disturb the order releasing them from that confinement [State of Uttar Pradesh v. Writ Petitioners and Others].
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra issued notice on the State’s appeal on the limited aspect of the award of compensation. The Single Judge, Justice Sandeep Jain, had on August 6, 2026, directed the father and the State to pay Rs 25 lakh jointly and severally, to be shared equally between them. The identities of the sisters are not disclosed in this report.
The Single Judge’s order
Allowing the habeas corpus petition, the Single Judge held that both women were adults with full legal capacity and had been illegally confined. The sisters had stated that they converted voluntarily, one in 2020 and the other in 2021, and denied any coercion. They alleged that their father confined them because of their change of faith. The father had separately lodged an FIR alleging forcible and deceitful conversion, which remains under investigation.
The Single Judge directed that the father and the State pay Rs 25 lakh within eight weeks, split equally, with liberty to the State to recover its share from the father and from any delinquent public servant found responsible. The Single Judge also clarified that the findings were confined to the illegality of the detention and were not a ruling on the criminal case or on the validity of the conversion.
The State’s appeal
Appearing for the State, Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal contended that the State had no locus in what was a dispute between private parties. He submitted that the State was called upon to make submissions and the record then wrongly noted that it had supplied no material, and that costs were imposed on it, placing it in an embarrassing position.
Advocate Kaif Hassan, appearing for the sisters, opposed the appeal and argued that the detention had allegedly taken place in connivance with State authorities. These are contentions of the parties and have not been adjudicated by the Division Bench.
What the Division Bench held
The Bench declined to interfere with the release of the sisters from their father’s custody, relying on the statements of the two women as recorded by the Single Judge.
the undisputed statements of the corpuses as recorded by the learned single judge
On compensation, the Bench noted that the award appeared to have been made without giving the State an opportunity to address that question. It issued notice on the State’s appeal confined to the award of compensation and notice to the father, who may file a counter-affidavit by the next date. The direction to pay compensation as against the State is stayed until further orders. The Bench has expressed no view on the merits of the criminal case, the FIR remains untested, and the presumption of innocence applies to all those named in it.
Why the order matters
The order separates two questions that have run together in the litigation: whether adults were unlawfully confined, on which the release stands, and whether the State can be made to pay compensation without first being heard on it. The appeal on that second question will now be argued, while the release of the sisters remains intact.
Case Title: State of Uttar Pradesh v. Writ Petitioners (Sisters) and Others, arising out of a habeas corpus petition decided by Justice Sandeep Jain, Allahabad High Court
Bench: Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra, Allahabad High Court
Order: Division Bench stay on compensation direction against the State, October 2026
Appearances: Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal for the State; Advocate Kaif Hassan for the sisters