Apex court to hear if Muslims can be made party to non-Muslim marriage dispute

 

The Federal Court will rule on a housewife’s petition for judicial separation against her husband alleged to have had an affair with a Muslim woman.

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court will hear on Sept 10 whether a Muslim can be cited as a co-respondent in a petition for judicial separation involving a non-Muslim married couple.

Lawyer Ravi Nekoo said the proceedings scheduled today were adjourned as his client, a non-Muslim housewife, wanted to include further grounds in her petition to strengthen her case.

“We only obtained the grounds of judgment (from the Court of Appeal) recently and want to add further grounds,” he told FMT.

Ravi said the respondent’s lawyer, Siew Choon Jern, was also unwell.

On Nov 5, the Federal Court allowed the housewife’s leave application after a three-member bench led by Nallini Pathmanathan approved two legal questions.

“The questions need further arguments and are a matter of public interest,” she had said.

The questions up for argument are:

* Whether Section 3(3) of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act (LRA) precludes a non-Muslim petitioner from citing a Muslim as a co-respondent on an allegation of adultery for judicial separation; and

* Whether a court in interpreting the same provision of the LRA should have regard to the presumption that Parliament does not intend to legislate in violation of Articles 5(1) and 8(1) of the Federal Constitution.

Ravi appeared with Gopal Sri Ram for the housewife, who is identified as AJS, while Siew appeared for the respondent, RIS, and the co-respondent, JBMH.

On July 6 last year, a three-member bench of the Court of Appeal held that a Muslim cannot be made a party in a matrimonial dispute involving non-Muslim couples.

High Court judge Faizah Jamaludin had similarly ruled that a co-respondent could only be named in a divorce petition and not a judicial separation, regardless of his or her religion.

In a divorce, a marriage contract is annulled, whereas in cases of judicial separation, the marriage continues to exist but the couple are permitted to live separately.

AJS had filed a petition for judicial separation against her husband, RIS, in 2019.

AJS named JBMH, a Muslim woman, as co-respondent, whom AJS alleged was having an affair with her husband.

JBMH then filed an application to remove her name on the basis that the LRA did not apply to Muslims.

The identities of the parties have been withheld as provided for in the High Court ruling. - FMT