Setting aside the Kerala High Court order in connection with the Kerala ‘love jihad’ case, the Supreme Court on Thursday restored the marriage of Hadiya with Shafin Jahan.
Kerala High Court had annulled validity of her marriage.
Hearing the case, the apex court observed that Hadiya can complete her studies and live with anyone of her choice.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said “it is restoring Hadiya’s marriage as she has exercised her free consent in getting married to Shafin”.
The top court also allowed the National Investigation Agency to continue with their investigation.
A Division Bench of Kerala High Court had annulled Hadiya’s marriage on 25 May last year and it directed her to return to the protective custody of her Hindu parents.
On Wednesday, Hadiya’s father KM Asokan had claimed before the Supreme Court that his efforts prevented his daughter from being transported to “extremist-controlled territories” of Syria to be used as a “sex slave or a human bomb”.
In a fresh affidavit, Asokan had claimed that his daughter was a “vulnerable adult” and she “abjectly surrendered herself to complete strangers who adopted her into their fold, offering her shelter and protection and further imparted religious indoctrination in an isolated environment”.
He was responding to an affidavit filed by his Kerala-based daughter Hadiya. She had earlier told the apex court that she had willingly converted to Islam and wanted to remain a Muslim.
In his affidavit, Asokan said he cannot remain a mute spectator if his daughter is abducted and taken to extremist-controlled territories for being used as a sex slave or a human bomb.
The matter came to the fore when Shafin Jahan, who claimed to be the husband of Hadiya, had challenged a Kerala High Court order annulling his marriage with her and sending the woman to her parents custody.
The apex court had on February 22 questioned whether the high court could nullify a marriage between “vulnerable adults” after the father of the 25-year-old woman had justified the order.
The high court had annulled the marriage terming it as an instance of love jihad, following which Jahan had approached the apex court.
(With agency inputs)