High Court to hear if woman renounced Islam or was never a Muslim

 

Last year, the Seremban High Court ruled that the civil courts had no power to hear the woman’s case as it fell under the jurisdiction of shariah courts. (Facebook pic)

PUTRAJAYA: 

A former kindergarten teacher challenging her conversion to Islam when she was four years old will now have the opportunity to present her case before the High Court in Seremban.

This follows the Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision today to reinstate the 47-year-old woman’s suit to allow for the merits of the case to be heard.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Lee Swee Seng said this was not an unsustainable case for the suit to be struck out.

“It is premature to annul the suit when her constitutional right to freedom of religion runs contrary to what is claimed by the religious authorities,” Lee said, adding that the civil trial court has to decide if she was never a Muslim or if it was a case of renunciation.

Also on the bench hearing the appeal were Justices Wong Kian Kheong and Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.

A case management will be held on April 14 to fix the hearing dates.

Last year, Judicial Commissioner Haldar Abdul Aziz ruled that the civil courts had no power to hear the woman’s case as it fell under the jurisdiction of the shariah court.

He said the woman’s originating summons in the civil court against the Negeri Sembilan Islamic Religious Council (MAINS), national registration department (JPN) and government constituted an abuse of court process.

Haldar said Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution demarcated the boundaries between the civil and shariah courts, and that each court was only permitted to hear and decide cases within their respective jurisdictions.

The woman claims that her father, who became a Muslim, unilaterally converted when she was four years old.

The woman, now a mother of two, said she had been raised by her maternal aunt since then and had never recited the declaration of faith (kalima shahada), nor practised the Islamic way of life.

She is seeking a declaration that she was never a Muslim, and wants JPN to change her religious status to non-Muslim.

Lawyers S Karthigesan, AR Thamayanthy and Ranunha Devi represented the woman, counsel Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar acted for the state religious authorities, while senior federal counsel Amalina Zainal Mokhtar appeared for JPN. - FMT