A-G and IGP apply to be parties in two interfaith custody disputes

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail is applying to suspend both custody orders as the cases were of public interests and touched on religious sensitivities. – The Malaysian Insider pic, July 2, 2014.

The Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police have applied to the Court of Appeal to intervene in two controversial interfaith custody disputes.

A-G Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the civil courts had exceeded their authority when they issued recovery orders to the police to locate the children of S. Deepa and M. Indira Gandhi, who are with their ex-husbands who had converted to Islam.

Both Gani and Khalid said, if their applications to be interveners were allowed, they want the Court of Appeal to suspend the High Court orders to compel police to locate Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah and Izwan Abdullah.

The court papers were filed on June 26.

Khalid said he was in a quandary because there were two custody orders, from the High Court and Shariah High Court, and executing one would mean he was showing disrespect to the other. The Shariah courts had granted both fathers custody of the children.

Gani and Khalid said a stay of the orders was vital or else their attempts to appeal would be futile as the status of the High Court and Shariah Court under Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution had to be determined.

One view is that the civil court is superior to the Shariah Court while another stand is that both are of equal status.

Lawyers K. Shanmuga, who is appearing for Deepa, and N. Selvam, representing Indira, said they had received copies of the court papers from the A-G's Chambers.

"I will be taking instructions from my client to file an affidavit in reply. We will be contesting the A-G's and IGP's applications," he said.

Selvam said their team of lawyers would meet in anticipation of "serious legal and constitutioal challenges arising from the case now".

Last week Gani said he was applying to suspend both orders issued as both cases in Seremban and Ipoh have become cases of public interests which touched on religious sensitivities and have the potential to threaten public order.

On April 7, Seremban High Court judge Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof had granted Deepa custody of Sharmila and Mithran, both of whom had been converted to Islam by her husband last year without her knowledge.

The judge allowed Deepa's application as the civil court had jurisdiction over the matter and provide the relief for custody and dissolution of the couple's marriage.

Two days later, Izwan abducted Mithran, saying it was for the child's "protection".

She then obtained a recovery order from the High Court on May 21 to get police to search for Izwan and Mithran.

In Indira's case, her ex-husband, Rizduan has also yet to hand over their youngest daughter to her despite a 2010 Ipoh High Court order awarding her custody of their three children.

Ridzuan has held on to Prasana Diksa since April 2009 when she was 11 months old.

The Shariah High Court in Ipoh had in 2009 given Ridzuan custody of the three children after he unilaterally converted them to Islam.

However, in July last year, the Ipoh High Court, in a landmark ruling by judge Lee Swee Seng, quashed the certificates of conversion of the three children and ruled that the certificates were null and void because they were unconstitutional.

Last month, the court also issued an order to arrest Ridzuan but police have yet to act on it.

- TMI