SC allows Hadiya to resume studies

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday granted Hadiya, the woman at the centre of the controversial Kerala love jihad case, to come out of her father’s custody to resume her studies at Salem in Tamil Nadu.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud passed the interim order after interacting with Hadiya in open court for about half an hour. During the interaction, she expressed her desire to finish her studies in Homeopathy medicine (BHMS). She insisted that her husband should be made her guardian and she did not need state fund to complete her education as her husband would provide the money. The apex court directed the university concerned to re-admit Hadiya and grant her hostel facility. Furthermore, it asked Kerala police to provide the young woman with security and ensure she travels to Salem at the earliest.

Hadiya had to wait for nearly two hours to speak as arguments revolved around whether the hearing should be held in camera, or behind closed doors, with the National Investigation Agency building a case about terror links and a pattern of forced conversions.

The judges had called Hadiya to testify if she married Shafin Jahan in December last and converted of her own free will. They pointed out that since she is an adult, her consent is ‘prime’. Before taking a flight to Delhi, Hadiya shouted to reporters at the Kochi airport: “I have not been forcefully converted... I have not been forcefully married to Shafin Jahan. I married him of my own will, and I want to live with my husband.”

Her father KM Asokan says she “does not have an independent mind”, is brainwashed and heavily influenced, which indicates that her testimony cannot be relied upon.