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M. Revathi, her husband V. Suresh and their daughter Diviya Dharshini at the Shah Alam High Court yesterday. |
SHAH ALAM: An express bus driver failed to get a ruling yesterday to declare illegal his wife's detention by the Islamic religious authorities early this year.
The Shah Alam High Court ruled it had no jurisdiction to hear the habeas corpus application by V. Suresh because his wife M. Revathi was no longer under detention.
On Thursday, she was produced before the Syariah High Court in Malacca, which ordered that she be placed under the care of her Muslim parents.
Revathi, whose Muslim name in her identity card is Siti Fatimah Abdul Karim, had been detained at the Baitul Aman faith rehabilitation centre in Hulu Yam Bharu in Selangor since Jan 8.
The couple are from Cheng near Alor Gajah in Malacca.
He claimed that his wife was a practising Hindu.
Suresh had named the superintendent of the centre and its authority, the Selangor Islamic Religious Affairs Council, as respondents to the application.
The couple, both 29, were present at yesterday's court proceedings.
In her ruling, judge Datuk Su Geok Yiam said she was allowing the respondents' preliminary objection on grounds that Revathi had been released.
"The law is very clear. The court has no jurisdiction once the subject matter to such application is no longer under detention," she said.
Su said she could not accept the argument of counsel Karpal Singh, who appeared for Suresh, that the court should make a ruling on the application although it had been rendered academic.
"In the public interest, this court should make a ruling, or else cases of this nature will keep recurring in the future," he said.
Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, who appeared for the centre and the council, said the court had no authority to judge the merits of the case because Revathi was no longer in detention.
He said the Syariah Court had the discretion to issue an order to place Revathi in the custody of her parents and it was not done to frustrate the husband's application in the High Court.
