The Ipoh High Court has today ordered K Pathmanathan, who has since converted to Islam and ran away with his six year-old daughter, to return her within a week and hand her over to the mother, M Indira Gandhi.
Justice Lee Swee Seng, in reading out his two-and-a-half hour judgment, also found Pathmanathan guilty of contempt and said the civil court had higher jurisdiction compared to the Syariah courts.
He said this is due to the fact that the Syariah Court decision cannot bind a non-Muslim party in a marriage.
Justice Lee said the country is practicing secular law and the High Court has unlimited jurisdiction and is superior in nature to the Syariah Court.
Failure to deliver the six year-old child, according to Indira’s lawyer M Kulasegaran, would mean the police would have to enforce the warrant of arrest on him for committing contempt for not abiding by the court order.
“Following this, the court must surrender the child to Kula &Associates by noon next Friday,” he ruled.
It was reported last year that in a landmark decision, Justice Lee had overturned the conversion of all three of Pathmanathan’s, or his Muslim name Muhammad Riduan Abdullah’s, underage children to Islam when the court ruled that while he can convert, the children could not be converted without the consent of the other spouse.
[More to follow]
Justice Lee Swee Seng, in reading out his two-and-a-half hour judgment, also found Pathmanathan guilty of contempt and said the civil court had higher jurisdiction compared to the Syariah courts.
He said this is due to the fact that the Syariah Court decision cannot bind a non-Muslim party in a marriage.
Justice Lee said the country is practicing secular law and the High Court has unlimited jurisdiction and is superior in nature to the Syariah Court.
Failure to deliver the six year-old child, according to Indira’s lawyer M Kulasegaran, would mean the police would have to enforce the warrant of arrest on him for committing contempt for not abiding by the court order.
“Following this, the court must surrender the child to Kula &Associates by noon next Friday,” he ruled.
It was reported last year that in a landmark decision, Justice Lee had overturned the conversion of all three of Pathmanathan’s, or his Muslim name Muhammad Riduan Abdullah’s, underage children to Islam when the court ruled that while he can convert, the children could not be converted without the consent of the other spouse.
[More to follow]
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