Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar should enforce the civil High Court order on custody of children in religious dispute cases, and not be interpreting the court order on its own.

Senior lawyer CV Prabhakaran said in fact, the police should be arresting the convert father for failure to comply with and respecting the civil court order.

“The job of the IGP is not to interpret but to enforce the law of what the police are directed to do. The failure of the father to return the child despite a court order being issued amounts to an offence. Hence, the police should bring the father and the child back to the mother.

“Putting the child in a childcare centre is a wrong move as the police are not empowered to interpret what it was required to do, but enforce what the court has directed them to do,” he said.

In the case of M Indira Gandhi ( left in photo ), Prabhakaran said the father, K Pathmanathan@ Mohd Ridhuan Abdullah, has yet to comply with the order despite being directed to do so by June 6.

In this matter, Prabhakaran said the police should have arrested the father and recovered the child. Till today, Ridhuan has not returned the couple’s five-year-old youngest daughter.

He even suggested that Khalid’s suggestion of taking the middle path is bordering on contempt for not complying with the civil High Court order.

Another lawyer, Benjamin Dawson, agrees that the civil High Court order should take precedence as the Syariah High Court order is not binding on non-Muslims.

Benjamin said one has to ask the right questions -  are the Syariah Courts’ decision binding on non-Muslims?

“The attorney-general should be advising the IGP on this. The AG should know that the Syariah High Court order (in granting custody to the converted parent) is non-binding to a non-Muslim as in the S Deepa and Indira Gandhi cases as they chose to remain Hindus.

“Hence, the Syariah High Court order when declaring custody to the converted spouse is not enforceable and that only the civil court order should take precedence in enforcement and stand. With this, the IGP should follow the civil High Court order.

Benjamin said in fact, the Ipoh High Court order in the Indira Gandhi case went on further to declare the Syariah High Court order as null and void due to it being not binding to the Hindu mother.

IGP’s middle path

Following this, he said the AG should have given the right advice to the IGP on this issue and not keep quiet.

Both lawyers were commenting on Khalid’s statement on Tuesday that police will take the middle path in putting the children in religious custody disputes in childcare centre rather than placing them in the custody of either the converting or non-converting parent.

 

The top police officer reiterated his stand yesterday despite mounting criticisms from both opposition and government politicians over the stance, saying the stand taken was due to his “being sandwiched” between the two system.

“I have made a stand and the police will stand by it.

“I can’t do anything if there are people out there lambasting the police,” Khalid ( left in photo ) was quoted as saying in The Star yesterday.

Deepa and Indira Gandhi are involved in legal disputes due to the actions of their converted husbands who unilaterally converted their own children.

In the Indira Gandhi case, the Ipoh High Court, besides granting custody of the children to the mother, had declared the unilateral conversion of the children to be null and void.

However, in Deepa’s case, in Seremban High Court granted custody on the mother but ordered the faith of the two children to be retained. However, Deepa’s former husband N Viran @ Izwan Abdullah had taken their six-year-old son away.

In both cases a recovery order has been issued by both courts for the father to return the child.