30 April 2016

May justice prevail for Indira

Heng to IGP – Act now to uphold integrity of the civil court’s jurisdiction

Wanita MCA praises the Federal Court’s decision in instructing the Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to arrest K. Pathmanathan @ Mohd Ridhuan Abdullah by reiterating that

“(The duties of the police) includes apprehending all persons who he is, by law, authorised to apprehend and executing summonses, subpoenas, warrants, commitments and other processes lawfully issued by any competent authority, among others. In this light, we are of the view that (based) on the facts and circumstances of this case, the IGP cannot refuse to command his officers to execute the warrant of committal issued by the civil High Court.”

It is unfortunate that Indira Gandhi who has patiently persevered to be reunited with Diksa had had to apply to the Federal Court for a committal order against her ex-husband owing to the initial refusal of the IGP to apprehend Ridhuan despite the Ipoh High Court’s landmark mandamus order on 12 Sept 2014 that the IGP must enforce the civil court’s order and not that of the Syariah court.

Indira has been separated from Diksa since 2009, and yet, despite the numerous court applications and custody rulings and committal order, the IGP failed to act on the civil law’s jurisdiction on the grounds that the police were stuck in the middle ground as the Syariah Court had also awarded custody of the three children to Ridhuan.

The apex decision reaffirms that the Police Act which governs the Royal Malaysian Police was enacted under civil laws in our Parliament, and hence, there should never at all be any conflict on obeying the jurisdiction of the civil courts.

As the IGP has announced that the police will execute the arrest warrant unto Ridhuan, Wanita MCA yearns for Diksa to be finally reunited with her mother, brother and sister as custody of the minor children were awarded by the civil court to Indira.

In the first place, it was meaningless for the police, with their widespread national intel to expect Indira to search and locate her daughter first before the police would act on retrieving Diksa. 

As the Federal Court had also declared that Ridhuan’s action of ignoring court orders is “conduct (that) cannot be condoned,” Wanita MCA sincerely hopes that there will no longer be any repeats of contempt of civil court custody orders by a Muallaf spouse as had befallen in the case of S. Deepa vs Izwan Abdullah as these two incidents reveal that convert spouses who lost custody battle do not fear disobeying civil court orders of being arrested as the IGP had refused to act on the civil court’s custody award and committal order.

As it is better late than never, and since the IGP has announced that the police will issue an arrest warrant for Ridhuan, we hope to see justice will prevail for Indira. May the prompt action of the IGP uphold the integrity of our national jurisdiction, particularly, the civil court’s ruling.

Datuk Heng Seai Kie
Wanita MCA Chairman
Adviser on National Unity & Integration in the Prime Minister’s Department

-MCA online-