India may be a secular country but the sharia law supersedes secular laws in matter of any controversy. This is evident in a decision of Calcutta High court. A 15 year old minor girl, Anita, was reportedly seduced and abducted by a Muslim boy Shahidul and converted to Islam yet the court granted anticipatory bail to the accused citing a bizarre point of law. The Calcutta High Court and a division bench, comprising of Justice Pinaki Ghosh and Justice Shailendra Prasad Talukdar, while granting the anticipatory bail to Shahidul, on 16 December said that though marriage of a girl below 18 is unlawful according to Hindu Marriage Act, it is not applicable in the present case. Since Anita was converted to Islam prior to her marriage, the case falls under the purview of the Muslim Marriage Act and as the Muslim Marriage Act permits one to marry a 15 year-old girl, hence Shahidul has done no offence!
The moot point is that whether the conversion of a minor girl of 15 is valid in the eyes of law? If not, then the conversion of minor girl Anita stands null and void in the court of law. So treating her marriage according to Muslim Marriage Act does not arise. Furthermore, eloping with a minor girl of 15 without the consent of her parents is a clear case of kidnapping, which is a highly criminal offence. But it is a travesty of the justice that when sharia is the reference point all concerns for individual rights, women freedom, child marriage and humanity which the secular laws claim to protect are dumped at the altar of minorityism and Muslim appeasement. The nation has earlier witnessed the Shah Bano controversy and the manner in which law was twisted to suit sharia. The recent controversy around Imrana is still fresh in the public memory. Can there be voices enough to turn around the current trend wherein the laws of the civilized society supersede sharia? The country urgently needs a legal system which protects the non-Muslim community from the tentacles of sharia even if the Muslim community chooses to remain within its ambit.
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Voice of India 
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