PUCL to file petition against Karnataka HC order in ‘love jihad’ case

Kochi: The People’s Union of Civil Liberties has decided to file a writ petition against the order of the Karnataka High Court asking a woman who had converted to Islam to go with her parents until the case was investigated. The PUCL will question the HC order in the Supreme Court.

Silja Raj (23), a civil engineering graduate, was asked to go with her parents despite her statement that she had converted to Islam on her on will and that she was waiting to get married to Ashkar as per the Special Marriages Act. Hearing the case, the court had reportedly said that the facts had ‘national ramifications concerning security, besides the question of unlawful trafficking of women’. The court had also asked the Karnataka DGP and IG to conduct investigation into the matter (including any role of ‘love jihad’) and to submit a report by November 13. The girl was asked to stay with her parents till that time.

The PUCL states that the since Silja is a major, no one has the right to thrust her back to the family. The organisation saw it ‘as part of a pattern of continued intimidation on the nasis of community and gender, first started in Dakshin Kannada’, said Ramadasa Rao of the PUCL.

The whole notion of ‘love jihad’ is a ‘figment of imagination’, said Mr Rao. He expressed his concern that the order would severely impact the rights of young men and women to free association and marriage. Silja Raj of Chamarajnagar in Karnataka and Ashkar of Kannur in Kerala fell in love when Silja’s family had been to Kerala. When parents were trying to arrange a marriage for her, Silja ran off to Kerala and married Ashkar. They registered their marriage reportedly on August 9. They had also reportedly informed Silja’s family that she was in Kerala with Ashkar. Silja, who had converted to Islam, was then admitted to a madrasa in Kottayam to learn the religion. Then, some people from Karnataka came searching for Silja but had to go without any trace of her. Silja had reportedly told her father in the presence of police officers that she was not willing to go back to Mysore, when the father came to Kerala. Soon, Ashkar began to be projected in the media as a kidnapper. Media reports said that he had forced 22 women to convert to Islam.

Silja’s father filed a habeas corpus in the Karnataka High Court on October 4. The recent court order has come while considering the habeas corpus. Nagraj Hegde, the lawyer of Silja’s father, had mentioned in the HC that in two similar cases in Kerala, the judge had asked the girls to go with their parents. The lawyer also presented copies of the Kerala HC order.

The Kerala state DGP had enquired into the matter of ‘love jihad’ as per the Kerala High Court order and submitted report on Thursday stating that there was no such organisation functioning in the state. Nor was there evidence for such movement anywhere in the country.