'No court order for police to get Indira's children'

 

The Syariah High Court did not issue any order to the  police to retrieve the children of K Pathmanathan @ Mohd Ridhuan Abdullah, who is involved in a bitter child custody battle with his former wife M Indira Gandhi, the High Court in Ipoh heard.

This was told to High Court judge Lee Swee Seng yesterday afternoon by Indira’s lawyer M Kulasegaran (left), after senior federal counsel Shamsulbol Hassan applied for a postponement of the hearing of Indira’s application to initiate judicial review to compel Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar to act on High Court order issued to him.

Shamsulbol applied for the postponement following the application by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to be intervener in the Indira case and in another Seremban child custody case involving S Deepa and her former husband N Viran @ Izwan Abdullah, which will be jointly heard on Thursday.

"Since the Deepa case is coming-up on Thursday, the AGC applied for a postponement. However, we objected as the circumstances in our matter are different from Deepa's case, and the High Court judge heard our application for leave.

"We told the court that the Ipoh High Court has given two orders, one granting custody of all of Indira's children to the mother and a warrant of arrest against Ridhuan and the other order compelling the police and IGP to find the whereabouts of Prasana Diksa (also known as Ummu Habibah) and return her to the Indira," Kulasegaran said.

He said Indira's case differed from Deepa's (left), in which Izwan obtained a Seremban Syariah High Court order that not only granted him custody of his children, but also compelled the police to help retrieve his children.

After explaining this to court, Kulasegaran said, Shamsulbol understood the difference and would seek further instructions.

Despite this, Kulasegaran, said the High Court in Ipoh may decide on Friday whether to grant leave (permission) to hear the application to compel the IGP and the police to act on the order issued to them.

Application filed last month

Indira, a kindergarten teacher, had applied for a judicial review order on June 30, compelling the IGP to act on the warrant of arrest issued against Ridhuan and the order to retrieve six-year-old Prasana Diksa, whom the father took away.

Ridhuan (left) had failed to comply with the Ipoh High Court order issued on May 30 that he returns Prasana Diksa to Indira.

The couple's two other children, aged 17 and 16, are staying with the mother.

IGP Khalid had said he was taking a middle path in the dispute as there were two conflicting orders, from the Syariah High Court and the civil High Court.

However, as Kulasegaran pointed out yesterday, this was not the case as in Indira's matter.

The Ipoh High Court had also last year declared the unilateral conversion of all three of Indira Gandhi's children to Islam by Pathmanathan @ Ridhuan null and void as it went against international norms.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patai in a statement last month said the AGC would intervene in the case on behalf of the IGP because these two cases had become a public interest matter following the conflicting orders issued.

This will be heard on Thursday, by the Court of Appeal. The IGP had obtained a stay of the Seremban Syariah High Court order compelling the police to retrieve Deepa's children and return them to the father.