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Man Moves Supreme Court After Kerala HC Annulled His Marriage Assuming It Was 'Love Jihad'

The man says the HC judgement was an insult to independence of women in India.
Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters

A Kerala man has moved the Supreme Court after the Kerala High Court annulled his married to a woman calling it 'love jihad'.

The Hindustan Times reports that Shafin Jahan a petition saying that the HC order was an insult to the independence of women in India.

He was married to Hadiya, who was earlier known as Akhila. While the marriage was annulled last month, Jahan filed the petition on Wednesday.

Love jihad is a term used by radical Hindu outfits that claim that it is a conspiracy for Muslims to convert Hindu women and forcing them to take up Islam.

The newspaper reported that in his petition, Jahan has said that his wife had converted two years before their marriage, so there was no question of force.

Her conversion to Islam was accepted because Hadiya was an adult when she converted.

The Kerala HC judgement is telling of the times in the country, when more and more women are taking control of their own lives but are continued to be thought of as incapable of taking decisions for themselves.

The Indian Express had quoted the judgement in a report as saying, "Marriage being the most important decision in her (Akhila)'s life can only be taken with the active involvement of her parents. The marriage, which is alleged to have taken place, is a sham and is of no consequence in the eye of law. Her husband has no authority to act as the guardian."

Earlier, Akhila's father had filed a petition in the court claiming that his daughter had been coaxed into converting to Islam.

Meanwhile, the court had also directed that Hadiya be put under protective custody of her parents so that she doesn't further become the victim of 'love jihad'.

Matrubhumi English had reported that while the woman did not wish to stay with her parents, she was escorted to their house by the police.

News18 had reported that the court, after the case, had also ordered the Director General of Police of Kerala to comprehensively probe cases of 'love jihad'.

Hadiya is a homeopath doctor, and the news channel had quoted the court as saying, "It is not normal for a young girl in her early 20s, pursuing a professional course, to abandon her studies and to set out in pursuit of learning an alien faith and religion. The normal youth is indifferent towards religion and religious studies."

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.