KUALA LUMPUR: M. Indira Gandhi and her lawyers will return to the Ipoh High Court in Perak tomorrow in her 17-year legal battle to reunite with her daughter.
Tomorrow has been fixed for a judicial monitoring session, which was initiated in 2020 to compel the police to appear in court and provide an update every three months on their progress in locating her daughter, Prasana Diksa, and arresting her ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah.
It is also an important day for Indira as her daughter will officially turn 18 two days later on April 8, making her an adult in the eyes of the law.
The 51-year-old tuition teacher will then lose all legal avenues under the Child Act 2001 to compel the authorities to reunite her with her daughter, who was abducted by her ex-husband when the girl was only 11 months old.
"As a mother, I am hoping for a miracle," Indira had previously told the New Straits Times as she pinned her hopes on her daughter coming out to look for her on her own.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Khalid Ismail had previously pledged his commitment to assist in resolving the case.
"We will do our best within our responsibility."
Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi Action Team chairman Arun Dorasamy described tomorrow's judicial monitoring proceedings as significant in Indira's bid to reunite with Prasana.
"Prasana will turn 18 — the age of majority under the law. As such, committal proceedings to enforce the child's return can no longer continue in the same manner.
"The right to determine her future will rest entirely in her own hands," he said in a statement today.
"We will continue to hold on to one hope. That Prasana will be reunited with her mother. That justice, though delayed, can still be upheld.
"The rule of law cannot exist merely on paper. It must be enforced. Justice delayed too long is justice denied," he added.
Indira's ordeal began in 2009, when she filed a legal challenge against the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam by her ex-husband.
She was also granted custody of all her children in 2010, which her ex-husband failed to comply and absconded with Prasana.
The Ipoh High Court quashed the children's conversion in 2013, but the Court of Appeal reversed the decision in 2015.
Finally, in January 2018, the Federal Court nullified the unilateral conversion of the three children, including Prasana's, ruling that the word "parent" in Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution must be interpreted in the plural sense to mean both parents, if both were alive.
But Indira never got the chance to see her daughter ever since she was taken in 2010. - NST
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