Can Father Control 24-Year-Old: Supreme Court On 'Kerala Love Jihad' Case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has questioned a verdict that led to the annulment or cancellation of a young Kerala woman's marriage to a Muslim. The top court said that a 24-year-old woman "cannot be controlled by her father" as it heard details of what has come to be known as "Kerala's love jihad case."

In August, Chief Justice JS Khehar was part of a bench that allowed the National Investigation Agency, the country's top counter-terror body, to examine if Akhila Ashokan, known as Hadiya after she converted, had been lured into marrying a Muslim man as part of a larger conspiracy by terrorist groups to recruit vulnerable young Hindu women.

Today's Supreme Court hearing was presided over by the new Chief Justice of the country, Dipak Misra. He questioned if the Kerala High Court had exceeded its reach by annulling Hadiya's marriage in May to Shafin Jahan, who had returned to India from the Middle East. The marriage was cancelled on the basis of a petition by Hadiya's father, KM Ashokan, and she was ordered to return to live with him.
 Shafin Jahan has challenged the high court's decision and has also questioned the Supreme Court's permission to the National Investigation Agency to examine his marriage. Both Hadiya, who is a trained homepath, and he have said in the Kerala High Court that they met through an Islamist matrimonial site.

Hadiya's father says that Shafin Jahan, 27, has links to the ISIS, and the National Investigation Agency says that it would like to determine if she is part of a larger "love jihad: pattern playing out in Kerala, where more than 20 people have been reported as missing after moving to Syria or Afghanistan to fight with ISIS.

"Love jihad" is a term coined by Hindu right-wing groups to allege an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women via first romance and then marriage.