 |
Malaysia’s High Court has rejected a Muslim convert’s application to stay the court’s ruling that he hand over custody of his child to his Hindu wife.
The High Court in Ipoh ordered Mohd. Ridzuan Abdullah to immediately surrender his third and youngest child to the custody of Indira Gandhi. The couple have been separated for a year, ever since the former Hindu man converted to Islam, UCA News reports.
On March 11, 2010, the High Court gave Indira custody of the 23-month-old child, effectively overturning an earlier order by the Syariah Court.
According to the news portal Malaysian Insider, Gandhi recalled she married Pathmanathan, Mohd. Ridzuan’s original name, according to Hindu rites 14 years ago, but the marriage turned sour afterward. However, Gandhi stuck by him and bore three children now aged 13, 12 and two.
In March last year, Pathmanathan suggested that the family embrace Islam for economic advantage. “I refused and so did my two older children,” Gandhi said. Patmanathan left home soon after, taking with him their then 11-month-old daughter.
Gandhi lodged a police report and it was only then that she was told that Pathmanathan had embraced Islam in early March 2009 and that he had converted their three children a month later on April 12 without her consent or knowledge.
The Syariah Court had also granted Pathmanathan custody of the children.
Fight taken to civil courts
Gandhi took her fight to the civil courts to nullify her children’s conversion and to get custody. On March 11 this year, the Perak state High Court judge gave her custody of the youngest child, overturning the Syariah Court order.
The judge also overruled objections from the lawyers for the state Religious Department who argued that the matter should have been handled by the Syariah Court.
Gandhi’s lawyer M. Kulasegaran said after the hearing that “the judge said Gandhi, being a non-Muslim, had no rights in the Syariah Court.” Mohd. Ridzuan then applied for a stay of execution of the high court order.
That the civil court decided to hear the case was seen as a “breakthrough” as the Federal Constitution states that matters pertaining to Shari’a law cannot be heard in the civil court.
Kulasegaran told the press he plans to file contempt proceedings should the child not be handed over to Gandhi.
Meanwhile in a separate court, the decision on Gandhi’s application for leave for a judicial review to quash the conversion of her three children to Islam has been set for April 3.
SOURCE
Muslim convert fails to get custody of toddler (UCA News)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...438 words
Share this article:
Subscribe to our feed (RSS)
Share a story with us
Follow us on Twitter