Kerala 'love jihad' case: NIA cannot probe 24-year-old Hadiya's marital status, rules Supreme Court

In a major development in Kerala’s Hadiya case, which has also been dubbed as the “love jihad” case, a a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the CJI has observed that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) cannot probe 24-year-old’s marital status.

Kerala 'Love Jihad' case: Three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra observed NIA cannot go into marital status of Hadiya, after saying that she is an adult.

— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2018

The court said that the NIA probe will not have any bearing on the legitimacy of Hadiya’s marriage to Shafin Jahan which was annulled by Kerala High Court. The apex court will continue to hear the matter on 22 February.

The court also observed that a major woman cannot be forced to live with her parents and only Hadiya has the right to decide where she wants to live, reported CNN-News18. The NIA, for its part, told the apex court that it has made substantial progress in its probe into the alleged “love jihad” case.

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In December, Hadiya, the woman at the centre of an alleged ’love jihad’ case,  met her husband at her homeopathic medical college in Salem. The 24-year-old, according  The News Minute, met her husband under CCTV surveillance, after an year of separation as the Kerala High Court had annulled their marriage. The court had termed the marriage as an instance of ’love jihad’, following which Jahan approached the Supreme court. [caption id=“attachment_4228777” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Hadiya. Reuters[/caption] “The meeting was so emotional. Hadiya was so happy. She had a lot to share with me as we were meeting after a long time,” Jahan was quoted as saying by The News Minute. Jahan visited Hadiya along with two others, including his lawyer,  The Indian Express quoted the college sources as saying. The report added that the college authorities allowed the meeting after both Jahan and Hadiya sought permission. Born Akhila, Hadiya had converted to Islam and married Jahan while still studying. The court had appointed the dean of the college as  Hadiya's guardian  and granted him liberty to approach it in case of any problem. She had earlier stayed at her parental home in Kochi for several weeks. In an interim order on a petition by Jahan challenging the high court verdict, the Supreme Court had on 27 November set Hadiya free from the custody of her parents. The apex court, however, did not accept her plea to be allowed to go with her husband. Hadiya’s father on 30 November had  claimed that  some persons were trying to “interrupt” his daughter’s studies and that he would approach the court to protect her. KM Asokan had said that the Supreme Court had directed that his daughter go to the homoeopathy medical college in Tamil Nadu with a purpose to allow her to complete her studies and any move to interrupt it would be an offence. Claiming that his daughter had been “brainwashed” to go to Syria, Asokan, a former army man, said he had no issues with whatever faith his daughter wanted to follow. With inputs from agencies