The Supreme Court said on Monday that it will hear what Hadiya- the 25-year-old Kerala Hindu woman who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man- has to say.
Hearing a special leave petition filed by Shafin Jahan, Hadiya's husband, against the nullification of their marriage by the Kerala HC, the SC asked how HC could have taken such a decision based on a habeas corpus.
It was on the basis of a habeas corpus petition filed by Hadiya's (born Akhila) father Ashokan, that the HC had called her marriage to Shafin Jahan a sham.
How the case played out in court
Senior lawyer Dushyant Dave, appearing for Shafin Jahan, said that the NIA was subservient to the government and that the investigating agency can no longer be party to the case.
To this, the apex court said that it will judge the case based on merit. The court adjourned the case to October 30.
In a heated argument, Dushyant Dave said that politicians including BJP's Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were using the Hadiya case as a political scoring point. However, the apex court asked the senior lawyer not to bring in politics to the court.
The SC made it clear that the matter of the Kerala HC annulling the marriage and the SC ordering an NIA probe into the case, were two different matters.
The apex court reiterated its earlier observation, that Hadiya's father Ashokan was not her only custodian.
Meanwhile the NIA submitted their report, in which they have reportedly stated that there is a pattern to the religious conversions and marriages in the state. Countering the NIA's report, Dushyant Dave said that NIA began investigation without a retired SC judge monitoring the probe, and that this means it was all "political."
Last week, the Kerala government said in a counter affidavit that the state police had found no crimes under the Scheduled Offences that warranted an NIA probe.