The appeal hearing of M. Indira Gandhi, a kindergarten teacher, in regard to the High Court’s rejection of her request to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for failure to comply with a recovery order to locate her daughter Prasana Diksa, has been rescheduled to April 5 next year in Putrajaya.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, consisting of Justices Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Hashim Hamzah, and Datuk Azmi Ariffin, was supposed to hear her appeal on Tuesday (Oct 31).
Justice Kamaludin stated that they did not have the opportunity to read the reply submission as Indira Gandhi’s lawyers failed to submit the document on time.
The judge mentioned that Rajesh Nagarajan, Indira Gandhi’s lawyer, had already requested an extension of time to submit the reply submission, resulting in the rescheduling of the hearing to a later date.
“Since it is a public interest case, the court ordered this appeal to be heard in an open court,” the judge stated.
Prior to this, Rajesh informed the court that he was unable to file the reply submission via the court’s online system and had requested an extension of time from the Court of Appeal deputy registrar.
Justice Kamaludin expressed their intention to read the reply submission and believed it would be fair for the matter to be rescheduled so that all documents could be presented before the court.
Consequently, the matter was referred to case management before the Court of Appeal deputy registrar to determine the new hearing date.
Rajesh confirmed that deputy registrar Mariam Hasanah Othman set April 5 next year for the appeal hearing when contacted by Bernama.
In 2009, Indira Gandhi’s ex-husband, K. Pathmanathan, converted to Islam and unilaterally converted their three children to Islam, obtaining a custody order for them from the Syariah High Court.
On March 11, 2010, the High Court in Ipoh granted Indira Gandhi’s application for custody, but Prasana Diksa, who was eleven months old at the time, was taken away by Pathmanathan.
Indira Gandhi initiated committal proceedings against Pathmanathan, also known as Muhammad Riduan Abdullah after his conversion, for refusing to comply with the custody order. The High Court found him guilty of contempt of court and issued a warrant of committal.
In September 2014, Indira Gandhi obtained a mandamus order to compel the IGP to execute the warrant of committal against Pathmanathan after the IGP refused to enforce it based on conflicting court orders regarding custody.
On May 30, 2014, Indira Gandhi obtained a recovery order from the High Court instructing the IGP or Police Commissioner or the Chief of Police Officer to ensure that the relevant police officers file an affidavit every first week of the month to update the court on the progress of Prasana’s recovery.
She alleged that the police had failed to submit the affidavits, leading her to apply for leave to initiate contempt of court proceedings.
Last year on August 4, the Ipoh High Court dismissed Indira Gandhi’s application to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the IGP.
Mankiranjit Kaur, Senior Federal Counsel, represented the IGP. -Bernama
