Above: Hadiya and her husband Shafin Jahan. Photos: shafinjahan.s/facebook
The Kerala inter-faith marriage case, now famous as the Kerala love-jihad case, came to the Supreme Court from the Kerala High Court, which had annulled the marriage of the adult woman Hadiya to Shafin Jahan. Hadiya—her Hindu name was Akhila—had converted to Islam before she met Jahan and the two got married even as Hadiya’s father said that there was a terror connection in this. The Supreme Court bench, then headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, had asked the NIA to investigate into the issue and find out if there was any terror link involved, as alleged by Hadiya’s father KM Asokan.
The Supreme Court also ordered the formation of a committee under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran. However, Raveendran had refused to head the committee.
The current Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices DY Chandrachud and AM Khanwilkar had said that the girl, now 25, will have to be presented before the court. “We will record her statement before giving any further directions,” the bench had said.
On Tuesday (October 3), senior counsel Maninder Singh was not present. His proxy counsel requested for an adjournment.
Meanwhile, the counsel for the petitioner (Shafin Jahan) submitted that they are there to challenge the earlier order of the apex court in which the then bench had directed the NIA to do an investigation. The counsel said that they were against this because in a secular country the bench had directed an inquiry into a marriage, because it was inter-faith. Also, the girl is an adult.
The matter has been listed for Monday (October 9), so the bench refused to hear it on Tuesday.
—India Legal Bureau