An Ipoh High Court today has fixed April 1 to decide on a stay application in a custody battle for three children after hearing arguments from both sides.

indira gandhi children custody case 110310 ipoh high court On March 11, justice Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim had granted custody of the three children, Tevidarsiny, 13, Karan Dinish, 12, and Prasana Diksa, 2, to their mother M Indira Gandhi (in yellow) , 35.

Afrah had ruled that Indira being a non-Muslim could not go to the Syariah court for the custody.

However, Indira can seek justice in a civil court and justice Afrah ruled in favour of Indira although a Syariah court had earlier given the custody of the children to the father K Pahtmanathan @ Mohd Riduan, 41.

Indira was fighting a legal battle to get custody of the three children from her estranged husband who had converted to Islam and had also converted the three children to Islam without the mother's knowledge.

Riduan had also obtained a custody order for the three children from the Syariah court.

The two older children are staying with their mother while the youngest is in the custody of Riduan.

However, on that day, Riduan had filed an application for stay of the custody order in the Ipoh High Court and also filed an appeal in the court against the High Court order.

Mother might abscond with children

When the hearing came up in the chambers of Afrah today, Riduan's lawyers cited three reasons to allow his application for the stay:

1.If the stay is not allowed than there may be racial tension. The lawyers quoted a news report by Malay daily Harian Metro (Jan 27) that there was a precedent when a similar conversion case was heard in Trengganu.

2.There is a conflict of two court orders for the custody of the children-one by the Syariah court and another by the High Court.

3. If Prasana is given to the mother then Indira may abscond with the three children.

However, both Indira's lawyers  and M Kulasegaran argued that there is no cause for racial tension, which is merely based on a newspaper report that has not been verified.

Both the lawyers denied the likelihood of Indira absconding with the children if given custody as the mother has been faithfully following all the court's rulings.

dap islamic state forum 260707 shanmuga kanesalingam Shanmuga (left) said, "The High Court has ruled that it has the power to hear a non-Muslim custody case as seen in two Federal Court decisions in the two conversion cases of Tan Sung Mooi of 1994 and Subashini of 2001."

S Shamala case could affect verdict

He also cited the S Shamala conversion case, where her husband Dr Jeyaganesh C Mogarajah had converted to Islam and had claimed custody of their children.

In this case, a Syariah court in Kedah had ruled that the children should be in the custody of Dr Jeyaganesh whereas a High Court in Kuala Lumpur had ruled Shamala should have custody.

This case is coming up for hearing in the Federal Court in May and Riduan's lawyers want the Ipoh High Court to wait for the outcome of the Federal Court decision on Shamala before ruling on the custody stay application.

However, Kulasegaran asked for an early date to spare the mother of a long wait of mental anguish to reunite with Prasana.