All M. Indira Gandhi (left) wants is to see her daughter Prasana Diksa, who is with her father. On the right is lawyer M. Kula Segaran. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, December 30, 2015.Two years ago, M. Indira Gandhi celebrated a High Court ruling which returned her child Prasana Diksa to her but this morning, the ordeal was nowhere near resolved.
Her predicament continues and she has one last step, which is to seek legal remedy at the Federal Court.
“I don’t understand the legal jargons but justice has been denied,” she said in reference to the fact Prasana remains with her former husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, despite her obtaining custody from the civil court.
“When am I going to see her? I have been coming to the courts since 2009 and justice seems have eluded me,” she said as her voiced choked in emotion.
The kindergarten teacher said she wanted to move on with life to raise her children but the “obstacles” remained.
She said there was no reason to go the Shariah Court as her marriage with Riduan (Patmanathan) was by way of civil registration.
Her comments came after the Court of Appeal, in a majority ruling today, held that the validity of conversion of three children by their Muslim father could only be determined by the Shariah Court.
The appellate court, saying that the Ipoh High Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the conversion, reversed a lower court’s order quashing the unilateral conversion of the three children to Islam.
The three-man bench, headed by judge Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi, said taking the subject-matter approach, the conversion must be decided by the religious court.
On July 25, 2013, then High Court judge Lee Swee Seng held the conversion certificates of the children – Tevi Darsiny, Karan Dinish and Prasana Diksa – were null and void.
Lee cited provisions under Perak Shariah law where the children must be present to utter the affirmation of faith or the “syahadah”.
He said the Perak state enactment required a child to be present before a certificate of conversion could be issued.
Balia and Datuk Dr Badariah Sahamid said today Tevi Darsiny could now determine her religious status because she was 18 years of age.
Lawyer Aston Paiva said the upshot of the ruling seemed to suggest that Indira may have to turn to the Shariah Court for remedy although she was not a Muslim. – December 30, 2015.
Comments
Please refrain from nicknames or comments of a racist, sexist, personal, vulgar or derogatory nature, or you may risk being blocked from commenting in our website. We encourage commenters to use their real names as their username. As comments are moderated, they may not appear immediately or even on the same day you posted them. We also reserve the right to delete off-topic comments