INDIRA WON’T FIND JUSTICE AT SHARIAH COURT, EX-LAW MINISTER SAYS AFTER CONVERSION RULING

(Malay Mail Online) – It would be pointless for M. Indira Gandhi to seek relief over the unilateral conversion of her children to Islam at a Shariah Court as it is unlikely that it would even entertain the Hindu woman’s plea, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said.

In a blog posting yesterday, the former law minister pointed out that the Shariah Court has a legal right to choose not to listen to Indira’s case as it is a religious court tasked only to uphold Islam and the interests of its adherents.

“The Court of Appeal judges now want Indira to go to the Shariah Court for relief. It’s a proposition that’s ridiculous and without legal basis. I urge her not to waste her time.

“But the Shariah Court (being a religious court) will not even listen to Indira’s plea, and they have a legal right to do that. Why should they do the work of the civil courts?” Zaid said.

He said Indira’s case saddened and angered him, as it told the story of a mother who had been denied custody of her child simply because her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah had unilaterally converted their daughter to Islam.

“I ask myself: what kind of country have we become to produce such harsh laws and heartless judges? If Indira had been a Muslim mother, and the former husband did the unilateral conversion of the daughter to say Christianity, would the decision still be the same?

“Of course not. Indira did not get justice because she is not a Muslim,” Zaid claimed.

He revealed that during his stint as de facto law minister, he had asked the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to make a constitutional amendment to ensure that the conversion of minors occurred only with the agreement of both parents, and that he was told back in 2008 that a Cabinet committee had already been formed under the chairmanship of Datuk Seri Najib Razak— who was the then deputy prime minister.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal reversed a lower court’s order quashing the unilateral conversion of Indira’s three children to Islam, in a critical blow to the Hindu mother’s battle against her Muslim ex-spouse.

In a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel headed by Datuk Balia Yusof Haji Wahi also ruled that the civil courts have no jurisdiction over the Islamic matter, which it said was solely the purview of the Shariah courts.

Indira’s ex-husband, Riduan (formerly K. Pathmanathan), had in 2009 converted the couple’s three children — then aged 12 years old, 11 years old, and 11 months old — to Islam without their presence or Indira’s knowledge, just six days before he obtained a custody order for all three in the Shariah court on April 8, 2009.

He also snatched away the youngest child Prasana Diksa, now seven, about six years ago and has kept her away from Indira since.

The other remaining child, Karan Dinish, is now 17.