May 15, 2018

The couple eloped & got married in Delhi on 19th April after parents' opposition, says the petition.

Supreme Court has asked the Uttarakhand Police to produce in the Court on Wednesday a 20 years old woman who converted to Islam to marry after her husband sought her “release” from her parents’ custody, in what appears to be a re-run of the Hadiya case.

Requesting the Court to reunite him with his wife, 23-year-old Mohammad Danish on Monday told a bench-led by CJI Dipak Misra that he was arrested for the abduction of his wife, Aisha alias Shweta Bhist & was lodged in the Haldwani jail since 20th April.

“We want to talk to the girl & know what she wants. Does she want to stay with her parents or otherwise,” CJI Dipak Misra said, ordering Aisha be in the Court on Wednesday.

Danish & Aisha, who both hail from Haldwani, were pursuing Bachelors in Business Administration in Bheemtal when they fell in love.

Aisha’s parents were opposed to the relationship so they eloped & got married in Delhi on 19th April as per Islamic customs, the petition says.

Bisht took the name Aisha after converting to Islam allegedly of her own free will & they got the marriage registered in Ghaziabad, it says.

Her parents lodged an abduction complaint against Danish & the Uttrakhand Police arrested the couple from Delhi the next day.

The Uttrakhand govt. rubbished Danish’s petition. “The marriage certificate & the nikahnama are fake & it is a case of abduction,” deputy advocate general Manoj Gorkela said.

Danish said Aisha had emailed an affidavit to inspector general of police & Nanital senior superintendent of police informing them of her marriage & conversion.

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court in March upheld the marriage of Hadiya, a 26-year-old Kerala woman who converted to Islam & wed a Muslim man, upholding a woman’s right to choose a partner.

On her father’s petition, the Kerala HC had quashed the marriage & ordered Hadiya in her parents’ custody.

A bench led by CJI Misra, after hearing Hadiya, ruled an individual’s right to marry a person was a matter of privacy, intrinsic to right to life & state and society had no role in determining the choice.

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