Hindu mother, sons fail to remove Muslim names, ‘Islam’ from ICs

Lawyers Robin Lim (left) and S. Nithiyawathi at the Putrajaya High Court today. The two represent Jamilah Jan Vasanthegokelam and her four sons who failed in their bid to remove their Muslim names and 'Islam' from their identity cards. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, October 30, 2015. 

The Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal by a mother and her four sons to remove the word "Islam" and their Muslim names from their identity cards.

A three-man bench chaired by Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh ruled that based on evidence on record, the National Registration Department's decision not to change their names and religion was correct in law.

"It cannot be categorised as unreasonable, perverse and illegal for us to interfere," Zawawi said of the unanimous ruling.

The other two judges on the bench were Datuk Nalini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli.

Zawawi said the four had identified themselves as Indian Muslims professing the religion of Islam.

"It is not supported with cogent evidence that they were not Muslims," he said, affirming the High Court ruling made early this year.

The court also ordered the four to pay RM5,000 in costs to the government.

Cleaner Jamilah Jan Vasanthegokelam, 56 and her sons Mohd Shariff Abdullah, 35; Mohd Jefrey Mohd Baser, 32; Mohd Jass, 28; and Mohd Naser, 22 had applied to the department to remove the religion and their Muslim names but were refused.

Jamilah Jan wanted to be identified only as Vasanthegokelam, Shariff as Mahendran, Jefrey as Saiprasad Pillai, Jass as Jagath Kishore Pillai and Naser as Yuthesh Pillai.

Their lawyer, S. Nithiyawathi, who appeared along with counsel Robin Lim, said the men were still unmarried and were practising Hindus.

"They could not get married to Hindu women because of the Muslim names and religion on their identity cards," she told The Malaysian Insider.

The four were not in court today.

Senior federal counsel Mazlifah Ayob today submitted that the mother went to the department in 1983 to change her name from Vasanthegokelam to Jamilah Jan.

Mazlifah said Jamilah returned to the department in 1985 to replace her identity card using the same name.

“In 2013, she came to the department remove her name and the word ‘Islam’ in the identity card but was refused unless she produced a conversion certificate from the religious authorities.”

She said there was evidence that Jamilah had converted to Islam and practised the faith after remarrying a Muslim, Mohd Baser a/l Kalakan in 1982.

Mazlifah said there was overwhelming evidence that her children were Indian Muslims and professed the Islamic faith.

Lim argued that there were no records of their conversion to Islam.

Jamilah did not produce any conversion certificate to the department in order to be classified as Muslim in her identity card,” he said.

In the case of Shariff (Mahendran), Lim said the appellant was born to Hindu father, S. Ghanasan.

“He was converted to Islam and given a Muslim name when an application for his identity card was made.”

Jamilah remarried Baser and the couple had three boys.

They filed a judicial review in the High Court in 2013 and had named the department and the Home Ministry as respondents.

In their application, they wanted the department to remove “Islam” as their religion and to replace their Muslim names with Hindu names.

- TMI