Indira case: Two more ministers join Cabinet team

Subramaniam reiterates inter-faith custody cases a legal issue, not religious

 Two more ministers have joined a Cabinet team seeking a resolution to disputes over custody of children in civil marriages where one partner later becomes a Muslim.

The team was formed earlier this month after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision quashing the unilateral conversion of the three children of kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi by her former husband.

The team then comprised Dr S Subramaniam, the health minister and MIC president; Nazri Aziz, the de facto law minister when the Indira Gandhi case began in 2009; and Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister for Islamic affairs in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Dr Subramaniam told Malaysiakini that two more ministers had joined the team. They were: Liow Tiong Lai, the transport minister, who is also MCA president; and Joseph Kurup, a minister in the PM’s Department who handles national unity matters and also the president of the United Sabah People’s Party.

The Cabinet team has met the Attorney-General about the Indira Gandhi case. Subramanim said yesterday that the Indira Gandhi case was a legal issue, where the law has been interpreted differently by different people and judges. “We will give clarity to the law itself so there is no need for the judges to interpret it differently,” he said in an interview with Malaysiakini.