Kerala 'love jihad' case: Supreme Court tells NIA to probe criminal dimension of case, not Hadiya's marriage

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the NIA to continue its probe into any criminality in the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, with Shafin Jahan but not intrude into their marriage. [caption id=“attachment_4231699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Hadiya. Reuters[/caption] Observing that probe into the criminal aspect has to be segregated from the marriage, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud said, “…otherwise we will be creating a bad precedent in law”. “We can’t go into the marriage. Whether the person she is married to is good human being or a bad human” — the bench observed, noting that Hadiya is 24 years old and has made an independent decision and choice to marry. Making it clear that the National Investigation Agency has to stay away from the marriage of Hadiya with Shafin Jahan, the court observed that the agency could probe into “all other aspects except her marriage”. Hadiya was set-free and allowed to pursue her studies in the last hearing of the matter as she had told the court that she wanted to pursue her internship in the Sivaraj Homoeopathic College in Salem in Tamil Nadu. The court will hold the next hearing on 22 February when it will examine the validity of the Kerala High Court’s order annulling her marriage with Shafin Jahan.