New Delhi : Controversy about a Hindu woman in Kerala converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man became bigger on Friday with the Supreme Court expressing doubts over certain events linked to the episode and seeking a report from the National Investigating Agency in 10 days.
The woman’s husband, through senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising, slammed the Kerala high court’s decision to annul the marriage by terming it as part of a bigger ‘love jihad’ conspiracy. The husband demanded that as a major, the 24-year-old woman had the right to decide whom to marry and which faith to follow.
Sibal and Jaising said it was unfortunate that the HC annulled the marriage and even disallowed the husband to meet her. Both of them repeatedly requested a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud to summon and interview the girl to ascertain her free will while expressing concern about her safety.
“Is she alive? Why have the police cordoned off her house and not allowed anyone to meet her?” Jaising asked and persuaded the court to seek an undertaking from the woman’s father, K M Asokan, to produce her within 24 hours of being directed to do so.
Asokan’s counsel Madhavi Divan said the woman, the only child of her parents, had been psychologically indoctrinated as part of a larger conspiracy and exuded confidence to produce documentary proof. “If after perusing the evidence, the SC wants production of the girl, her parents have no objection.”
The bench called upon additional solicitor general Maninder Singh to appear for the NIA and asked the agency and Asokan to file all relevant documentary evidence in 10 days and posted the petition filed by the woman’s husband for detailed hearing on August 16.
When Sibal and Jaising kept pressing for a direction for her immediate production before the SC, the bench said, “It is not so simple. Why did Akhila give three names — Aasiya, Adhiya and Hadiya — on three different occasions on affidavits before the HC? This is not expected of a 24-year-old. If we need to meet her, we will. But it is a sensitive issue.”
The SC also prima facie shared the HC’s doubts about the “hasty and secretive” marriage of Akhila aka Aasiya with Shafin Jahan and wanted to know whether there was any criminal case against the husband as referred to by the HC.
Source : TOI
