Citizenship appeals adjourned pending minister's consideration

The Federal Court adjourned the hearing of four citizenship appeals scheduled today, pending the home minister’s consideration of the affected parties’ citizenship applications.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led a five-judge panel, fixed Jan 27 next year for the government and lawyers representing the affected individuals to report to the court on the outcome of the matter.

The others on the panel were Court of Appeal President Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Nordin Hassan, and Hanipah Farikullah.

The appeals were brought by NGO Family Frontiers, which represents a group of Malaysian mothers and four other individuals, namely Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed, Tan Soo Yin, Azimah Hamzah, and Mohanasengri.

The court struck out Mohanasengri’s appeal after he withdrew his case. Mohanasengri was born in Malaysia to a Malaysian father and a Singaporean mother.

At the start of the hearing, lawyers representing the appellants told the court that the recent amendments to the citizenship law, passed by Parliament earlier this year, would not affect their cases. They argued that amendments only applied prospectively.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat

For Mahisha, her lawyer Cyrus Das informed the court that her (Mahisha’s) citizenship application was approved through naturalisation under Article 19 of the Federal Constitution. However, he said since her citizenship was not automatic, her children do not automatically qualify for Malaysian citizenship.

Mahisha was born in India to a Malaysian mother and an Indian father.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, representing the Malaysian government, the Home Ministry, and the National Registration Department (NRD) director-general, said Mahisha would need to apply separately for her children’s citizenship for the Home Ministry to consider.

He said the government has given its commitment to expediting existing citizenship applications.

Shamsul referred to the Hansard which showed Parliament was told during the debate of the amendment bill that 19,370 of the 32,153 applications received were presently being processed.

Das then told the court that Mahisha has yet to apply for her children’s citizenship but will do so.

Applications pending

As for the stateless cases involving Azimah and Tan, the court was told they applied for citizenship and their applications were still pending.

Azimah was born in Pahang to Cambodian refugee parents who later became Malaysian citizens, while Tan was born in Johor to unknown parents.

Gurdial Singh Nijar

Counsel Gurdial Singh Nijar, representing Family Frontiers and six Malaysian mothers, said while the children of the six mothers were granted citizenship, the position of the others represented by the NGO is uncertain.

Family Frontiers and the six Malaysian mothers are appealing against the Court of Appeal’s 2-1 majority decision which overturned the High Court’s ruling that granted citizenship to their overseas-born children.

- Bernama