Hadiya’s father moves court again, this time alleging ‘illegal detention’
Hadiya, 31, told a local TV channel in Thiruvananthapuram that she was ‘safe and secure’ and that her father’s allegations were 'untrue.'
The father of Hadiya, the Kerala woman whose religious conversion and subsequent marriage to a Muslim man five years ago had reached the doors of the Supreme Court and stirred conversations around a woman’s right to choose her partner, approached the Kerala high court on Friday claiming that his daughter is being illegally detained by her husband.
Also Read | Hadiya, whose father wanted her marriage annulled, is now a doctor
Hadiya, 31, told a local TV channel in Thiruvananthapuram that she was safe and secure and that her father’s allegations were untrue.
KM Asokan filed a habeas corpus petition in the HC on Friday and sought that his daughter be produced in court. He said in his petition that his attempts to reach Hadiya over phone were unsuccessful and that a homeopathy clinic she was running had shut.
“The petitioner apprehends that she has been moved to the illegal custody of the place and control of the respondents 3 and 4. Now the detenu is in the illegal custody of the persons under collusion and connivance of the 4th and 6th respondents. So the detenu is to be released at the earliest,” the plea said.
The division bench of the High Court will hear the petition on December 12.
Also Read | From Sabarimala to Hadiya: Former CJI Dipak Misra relives orders
Speaking to reporters, Hadiya said: “There’s no need for a question mark over where I am. I am not in hiding nor is my phone switched off... from the start, my father has created troubles making it difficult for me to live. There have been cyberattacks on me which has made my life difficult. My father has always been made a tool by the Sangh Parivar forces. It is sad that he is allowing himself to be used that way.”
She added that she has been in constant touch with her parents and said had remarried after separating from her former husband Shefin Jahan. “I have remarried and I don’t think it needs to be a subject of discussion again. I am a mature adult who is capable of taking her own decisions,” she said.
The Supreme Court in March 2018 had upheld the validity of Hadiya’s marriage to Shefin Jehan, overturning an order of the Kerala high court which had termed the marriage a ‘sham’.
“Marriage and intimacy of personal relationships are core of plurality in India. We can’t let state or others make inroads into this extremely personal space,” the top court had said.
A bench of then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, justice AM Khanwilkar and the current CJI DY Chandrachud held that the high court order violated the freedom of an adult woman and slammed the Kerala government for supporting the woman’s father who, according to the judges, was “obstinate” and made all efforts to “garrote” his daughter’s desire to live with a man of her choice. “The thought itself is a manifestation of the idea of patriarchal autocracy and possibly self- obsession with the feeling that a female is a chattel,” the bench said in its April, 2018 order.
Recommended Topics