Justice Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim met the three children in chambers for about 10 minutes and ordered that they be brought to court again when the case resumes.
The case was brought by kindergarden teacher M Indira Gandhi, 35 (left), to seek custody of her two girls, aged 13 and two, and son, aged 12.She claims that her ex-husband K Patmanathan @ Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, 41, converted to Islam along with their three children in April 2009.
He later sought custody of the three children through a declaration from the Syariah court.
On Wednesday, Indira had attempted to quash conversion certificates at another High Court, but Justice Tarmizi Abdul Rahman dismissed the application because he said the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.
On the same day, she also filed an application at another High Court to challenge the Syariah court's declaration which granted custody to the father. This case has been set for mention on Feb 8.
Brief emotional reunion
Outside the courtroom, Indira broke down in tears when she told the press about the few minutes she had with her children inside the courtroom.
“I am meeting them after 11 months and I am very happy (my two-year-old daughter) can still recognise me when she smiled at me after so long. She kept calling me 'Amma! Amma!',” she said.
To a question, Indira said she was only allowed to cuddle her baby for a few minutes as her ex-husband was “not very cooperative”.
Indira's lawyer M Kulasegaran told reporters that the government should set up Family Courts to resolve such cases quickly and avoid causing trauma to families.
“The slowness in implementing this (family court) is causing a lot of family problems and mental stress and agony to the members especially the children. Also many lawyers are having problems taking up such cases (which involve conversions),” he said.
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