Courtesy: The Hindu

• Employer ordered to pay Rs. 40,000 compensation 

Bangalore, Feb 1: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday January 31, directed that a runaway teenaged domestic help, who was in the custody of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), be handed over to her mother.

The girl, a native of Siwan in Bihar, was not only united with her mother but was also paid compensation of Rs. 40,000 by her employer for making a teenaged girl do domestic chores.

The court also asked the mother to take better care of her daughter.

A Division Bench comprising Justice P. Vishwanath Shetty and Justice N. Kumar passed the order on a habeas corpus petition by Meera Devi who said she had learned that her daughter, who was employed as a domestic help in the residence of a person in the city, had run away.

She sought a direction to the police to produce her daughter. She said she had herself sent her daughter to stay with her sister in the city.

It was found that the girl had run away from her employer's house on December 10, 2005.

She was later left in a police station in the city, which, in turn, handed her over to the CWC. She was given shelter in a remand home.

The girl's employer undertook to pay compensation for having employed a teenaged girl and violating the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.