Advocate General asked to appear before HC

The writ petition had been filed in the High Court by C Selvaraj of Chamarajnagar, who claimed that his daughter Siljaraj had disappeared on August 8, 2009 after saying that she was visiting a temple nearby.

On August 15, he received a call from Azkar of Kannur District, Kerala stating that Selvaraj’s daughter was with him and their marriage was solemnised as per Muslim law. A few days later, he received another call from one K M Parthi Kutty saying that his daughter had converted to Islam. When the father tried to meet the daughter on August 19, he was told that he could not meet her as she was in a madrasa.

The girl who was produced in the Court on Tuesday said that she was already married under Muslim law and was now waiting for the marriage to be registered under the Special Marriage Act. She denied that she was being held against her will.

However, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the girl was being brainwashed and that she was a victim of ‘love jihad,’ an alleged religious conversion racket that lured girls through love. The counsel argued that if indeed there was genuine love, then the girl would have married already and this was a clear case of conversion and should be investigated into. The division bench comprising Justice K Sreedhara Rao and Justice Ravi Malimath said the girl was a major and hence free to decide on the course of action.

He also ruled that the High Court could not to take any decision about the investigation, as it was beyond the ambit of a habeas corpus. The Judge has however asked the Advocate General to appear in Court on Wednesday to provide more information.