New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing in the Love Jihad case after the lawyer representing the husband claimed that BJP chief Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath were using the case for their political propaganda.
Dushyant Dave, lawyer for Hadiya’s husband Shefin Jahan, said that Adityanath and Shah were trying to vitiate the atmosphere by raising slogans against the marriage and calling it ‘love jihad’. "This is politics - Amit Shah going to Kerala vitiating the atmosphere. And the UP chief minister going there raising love jihad issue," he told the court.
Dave also got into a heated exchange with the additional solicitor general and counsel for the National Investigation Agency Maninder Singh after he claimed that NIA had “no business investigating the case and was only being used for political purposes”. Singh had objected to the names of the BJP leaders being dragged into the case.
The apex court also took strong objection to Dave’s statements. Calling the allegations inexcusable, the court said it would not him to disturb the decorum of the court by making political speeches. “We take strong objection to the names of politicians being mentioned in the court. We will decide the case merely on legal points,” the SC said.
The next hearing in the case will be held on October 30, when the court is expected to take up two questions central to the case – can a high court annul a marriage under a habeas corpus petition and should NIA probe the Hadiya case?
On Monday, the court also raised the question that if Hadiya is saying that she has willingly married Jahan, then how can her personal liberty be curbed.
The NIA, however, argued that there is a pattern of wrongdoing. “There are certain individuals who are indoctrinating and hypnotizing girls,” the agency claimed.
The court, on October 3, had also remarked that a father cannot have control over a 25-year-old woman and that prima facie, a high court should not have the jurisdiction to annul the marriage of an adult woman.
Hadiya, 25, had married Jahan in December last year after converting to Islam. The Kerala HC, however, nullified the marriage and ordered the state police to investigate into such cases. The HC also handed over the custody of the adult woman to her father.
Jahan challenged the annulment of his marriage in the SC and urged the court to seek presence of the woman before it. The apex court, however, ordered a NIA probe into the matter on August 16 after the agency told the bench that love jihad is for real.
The Kerala government, in an affidavit in the SC on Saturday, opposed the NIA probe and pointed out that during the two-month long "thorough" investigation by the Kerala Police, no such incriminating material was found that called for an intervention by the central agency.
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