SC sends Hadiya back to college
I want to meet my husband. I want to complete my studies and want to live my life according to my faith... I want my freedom HADIYA, testifying in the SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Hadiya, a 24-year-old woman from Kerala who converted from Hinduism to Islam, to return to a homeopathy college in Salem to complete her studies, freeing her from the custody of parents.
The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra asked the college to allow her to do surgeon internship and the Kerala Police to provide her security in the case that has a bearing on inter-religious marriages and an adult woman’s right to choose her partner.
“I want to meet my husband. I want to complete my studies and want to live my life according to my faith and as a good citizen,” the 24-year-old woman told the court, which during the previous hearing had asked Hadiya to be presented before it.
The court, however, on Monday didn’t say anything on the petition filed by her husband Shafin Jahan against the Kerala high court order annulling the marriage. The petition will be taken up in the third week of January. When Jahan moved the top court it asked the National Investigation agency (NIA) to probe the charges of forced conversion and love jihad by Hadiya’s father.
“I want my freedom. I have been in unlawful custody for last 11 months,” Hadiya told the court.
The high court had ordered the homeopathy student in the custody of her parents after it annulled her marriage in May.
The SC hearing carried on beyond the court’s closing time of 5pm as the NIA wanted the judges to first take up its probe report into the Hadiya and 11 similar cases of alleged forced conversions.
After a debate of 105 minutes, the court let Hadiya speak, shooting down her father’s demand for a closed hearing.
Born Akhila Ashokan, Hadiya married Jahan without her family’s consent last December. Her father, Ashokan KM, who retired from the army, approached the high court in May, alleging in his petition that there was a “well-oiled systematic mechanism” for conversion and Islamic radicalisation that had trapped his daughter, often referred to as “love jihad” by right-wing Hindu groups.
The high court struck down the marriage, calling it a “sham”, but the husband moved the Supreme Court, which in its last hearing on October 30 said Hadiya’s consent as an adult was “prime”. The SC also said before examining the so-called love jihad issue, it would like to ascertain if Hadiya had voluntarily converted to Islam.
The Kerala government changed it stand when it told the court that it should first go through the NIA probe report before hearing Hadiya.
Earlier in an affidavit, the state government had opposed an NIA probe, saying Hadiya’s was not a case of indoctrination and there were no forced conversions in Kerala.