A Maple Ridge woman accused in an alleged honour-killing case in India has fired her lawyer, delaying her extradition hearing.

Malkit Kaur Sidhu, 63, who is being sought for extradition to India on charges she conspired to murder her daughter Jassi Sidhu in 2000, appeared briefly in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday.

David Crossin, her new lawyer, told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gregory Fitch that late last week he met with Sidhu's relatives and agreed to represent her.

He noted that the extradition hearing was scheduled to begin Oct. 29 and suggested that the matter be put over to Oct. 9 to schedule a new date for the hearing, which is expected to run a week.

Deborah Strachan, a lawyer for the attorney-general of Canada, noted that Sidhu and her co-accused, Surjit Singh Badesha, 67, also of Maple Ridge, have been in custody since January.

"I hope when we set a [new] date, it's not going to be too far into the new year."

Earlier this year Sidhu and Badesha were denied bail.

The honour killing relates to an allegation that Sidhu and Badesha, Jassi Sidhu's uncle, conspired to murder the 25year-old woman following her secret marriage to Mithu Singh Sidhu, an Indian rickshaw driver.

The couple was married in March 1999 and Jassi returned to Canada in May 1999, with the marriage being discovered only at the end of the year.

The Crown alleges that the two accused engaged in a campaign of terror - involving multiple death threats - against Jassi after they learned of the marriage.

On June 8, 2000, Jassi and Mithu were attacked in India by a group of men, with Mithu being badly beaten and Jassi abducted. Her body was found the next day, her throat slit.

-Keith Fraser is with The Province.