Indira Gandhi with her lawyers Kulasegaran (right) and Aston Paiva in court today. The Malaysian Insider pic, November 22, 2013. Kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi's hopes of being reunited with her 5-year-old daughter were dashed today when her ex-husband did not turn up in court with their youngest child.
His lawyer Hatim Musa informed Ipoh High Court judicial commissioner Lee Swee Seng that his client, Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah, needed more time to make a decision to return the child.
"I spoke to him two days ago, he needs more time. He stays in Kelantan," the lawyer said.
When questioned by Lee how long was needed, Hatim said "about one month".
Indira Gandhi's lawyers, M. Kulasegaran and Aston Paiva said they had no objections to the request.
Hatim also made an application to recuse Lee from presiding over the case further, but did not present a formal application.
As such, the court gave him two weeks to file the application and fixed January 24 for hearing.
State legal adviser Norazura Mokhtar, when asked if she agreed with the recusal application, said she needed to refer to her superior while government lawyer
Noorhisham Ismail said he took a neutral stand.
Previously, Muhammad Ridzuan had violated the High Court order of November 2011, in which custody of the couple's three children was awarded to the kindergarten teacher.
Muhammad Ridzuan has been holding on to their 5-year-old daughter Prasana Diksa since April 2009 following his conversion to Islam and separation from Indira Gandhi.
The child was 11-months-old at the time.
Two other children, Tevi Darsiny, 16, and Karan Dinish, 15, are with their mother.
In July, Lee quashed Muhammad Ridzuan's move to convert the three children to Islam.
The following month, Muhammad Ridzuan, the director of the state Islamic Religious Department and the Registrar of Converts applied to stay the High Court ruling made by Lee.
This meant that they were applying for the children to remain as Muslims until the Court of Appeal hears and decides on their appeal against the High Court ruling.
Today was fixed for the stay hearing, which was postponed to January 24.
Lee had previously said that if Muhammad Ridzuan wanted to address the court in the stay application, he needed to appear in court with the child.
Lee had previously also granted leave for contempt proceedings against Muhammad Ridzuan, and the hearing of this has been fixed for January 6.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters later, Kulasegaran said that in chambers today before court proceedings, state lawyer Norazura had mentioned that a stay was necessary because conversion cases at the Perak syariah court were pending given Lee's decision.
"She said that of 16 conversion cases since this case was decided, only 10 involving Orang Asli went through as both parents were present. Six have not gone through because only one parent was present in each of those cases according to her," Kulasegaran said referring to Norazura.
Lee in his July decision, had ruled that the certificates of conversion were null and void and unconstitutional as they were given without the presence and consent of the mother of the children. - November 22, 2013.
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