Court: Muslim conversion of Indira’s children unconstitutional
(MM) – In a landmark decision today, an Ipoh High Court quashed the Muslim conversion certificates of M. Indira Gandhi’s three children, ruling it unconstitutional to convert a child without the mother’s consent.
Today’s decision comes after the federal government bowed to public pressure and was forced to withdraw a Bill that was aimed at legalising the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam.
According to a report on The Star Online here, Judicial Commissioner Lee Swee Seng declared the certificates of the three children – Prasana Diksa, five; Tevi Darsiny, 16; and Karan Dinish, 15 – null and void after finding them unconstitutional and against the right of natural justice for being issued without Indira Gandhi’s knowledge or consent.
In court today, Lee cited Articles 3, 5 and 11 of the Federal Constitution to back his ruling, noting that the country’s highest law prescribes that a mother has the equal right to raise her children according to her own religion, said the English daily’s report.
The court also pointed to the Perak Syariah law, which Lee said stipulates that child to be converted should be present to utter the affirmation of faith.
“The judge held that conversion must be decided by the parents together, not only the mother or the father in isolation.
“The reason is that, if the mother converts the child today, then the father converts the child and then the mother again re-converts the child to another religion… there would be no finality in the matter and the law is intended to have some certainty,” Indira’s lawyer M. Kulasegaran told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Read more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/muslim-conversion-of-indiras-children-unconstitutional-court-rules
