Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email She was skeptical until its in black and white. She wants to see her kids original names and religion on paper. The cabinet can say thousand and one things, but law is law. She is right.
Today, the Ipoh High court granted Indira interim custody of her three kids. It also granted injuction preventing her husband from entering their home. Does it mean the Jabatan Agama fellows can enter?
Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim, who presided over the matter in chambers Friday, also ordered the police to assist Indira Gandhi in carrying out the court’s orders.
He set May 12 for an interparte hearing of the matter, to allow Indira Gandhi’s husband, K. Pathamanathan, 40, to give his side of the story.
When met outside the courtroom, Indira Gandhi’s counsel Augustine Anthony said the judicial commissioner had granted all requests listed in the originating summons.
He said that the matter of the children’s religion would be handled at a later date, pending the court’s decision after May 12.
When approached, a tearful Indira Gandhi said she was very happy with the court’s decision.
“But I will be even happier once all my children are finally with me,” she said.
The police are asked to assist Indira in getting back her baby and the husband is not allowed access to the kids without her permission.
Lawyers agree with the fact that a cabinet directive is just that – a directive:
Meanwhile, lawyers A. Sivanesan and M. Kulasegaran, who are also assisting Indira Gandhi in the case, said the Cabinet’s decision Thursday on conversion should be turned into a law.
“A directive has no legal effect in the court of law. It may be persuasive in court but again, it has no legal effect,” said Sivanesan.
Kulasegaran said the Religious Department could choose to ignore the Cabinet’s decision for a directive was “no different from mere advice”.
The Cabinet decided on Thursday that the children of parents who are divorced and where one parent converts to another religion have to be brought up in the ”common religion at the time of marriage.”
I was wondering when the protest will come, and it not surprisingly, the Syariah Lawyers have expressed shock over the Cabinet directive. Well, serves them right. All this while, they were not following justice and were shaking legs when conversion problems occur. How many families suffered? Where were they then? Now want to express shock??? We have a chance to fix the problem, so these fellow should zip it. If can’t help, then just keep quiet.
Anyway, I expect the problem to get bigger as more and more “NGOs” representing their religion voice their unhappiness. According to Perak Mufti:
Perak Mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria has urged the government to get views from the Malaysian Mufti Council before making any decision regarding Islam to avoid confusion.
He said the government decision that a child’s religion must be in accordance with the common religion of the parents at the time of marriage should have been discussed by the council beforehand.
“In Islam, when the father or mother is a Muslim, the child automatically becomes Muslim unless the child is above 15 years of age and can choose his own religion,” he said here today.
But in Hinduism, every soul is an Hindu. So how? If we follow track of whose religion is greater, it will be a neverending problem as I will say my religion is the truth, while another fellow will claim his is the true one. The only solution, ensure we all agree on common law. Any fellow want to convert, force him to come clean. Don’t create problem for the rest of the people, especially the family. Don’t insult or embarass your new religion until people look down on it. I hope their religious people can see some light and think practically.
Yes, you are right that the cabinet’s decision is not binding legally. But then it was never meant to so.
The purpose of the decision is to the high level policy, which will be encoded into law after drafting and then getting it approved in the Parliament. I am surpised that senior lawyers like Kula and Siva seems to be unaware of such simple fact. Perhaps they were hoping to make the issue a bigger controversy so that can be politicised and used against BN.
However, such decision by the cabinet sends a powerful message to would be parents who are thinking of resorting to such tactics.
I know a case personally that was very similar to this and one that also attained national prominence. In that case, the wife converted. However, the case died down after both parties reached an amicable solution. BTW the lady has since remarried and lives with the kids who are all Muslims.
how can the court say that shamala is guilty of contempt of court. she might be a person who did not known about the law. But what happened to the Shariah Court Judge who supposed to know the law much more better than shamala here. Even first year law students know that Shariah Court has no jurisdiction to hear thi case as shamala was married under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976. If the court wants to charge her for the contempt of court then they must also look at the Shariah Court’s juriscdiction.