Team News Riveting
Kochi, April 19
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday declined to interfere with the inter-faith relationship between Josina Mary Joseph and Shejin, which stirred up political storm after Christian family termed it “love jihad.”
A Division Bench of Justices VG Arun and CS Sudha closed a habeas corpus petition that Josina’s father had filed. The Bench observed that she had entered into the relationship out of her own free will and that a notice of intended marriage under the Special Marriage Act has already been submitted.
“We have interacted with the detenue. She categorically states that she has decided to interact with Shejin of her own free will and not under any sort of compulsion. She further states that as of now she is not interested in interacting with her parents which she will do at a later stage. Copy of notice of intended marriage has been submitted to the Marriage Officer, Kolanchery. Taking note of the categorical stance of the detenue and being convinced that there is no illegal detention, the petition is closed,” the Court said in its order.
“She, as we understand, is a 26-year-old person who has seen the world. She worked abroad and came back. She is capable of taking her own decision,” Justice Arun observed.
The relationship between the Christian woman and the Muslim man, a member of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), had sparked political row in Kerala after a district leader from the ruling CPI(M) accused Shejin of “love jihad”. A section of the Christian community including nuns later staged demonstrations in protest against the relationship.
The CPI(M) district leadership later intervened by clarifying that the party never referred to inter-religious marriages as ‘love jihad”, a term used to support the alleged conspiracy theory that claims that Muslim men marry women of other religions to convert them to Islam. The statement was misinterpreted, the CPI(M) leader said.
The couple had decided to get married by exchanging garlands and had submitted an application to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act and started living together.
Josina’s parents filed a police complaint and later filed the present Habeas Corpus petition before the High Court.
