Appeals court affirms ruling to quash children’s conversion to Islam

 

Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah says it is bound by the Federal Court’s decision in kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi’s case.

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has affirmed the decision to allow a father of Buddhist faith to quash the unilateral conversion of his children to Islam by their mother.

Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah said the appeals court was bound by the 2018 Federal Court decision in kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi’s case.

“We are of the view that we are bound by the Indira Gandhi’s case and there is no appealable error. The appeal is dismissed,” he said in a brief decision.

The other judges who sat in with Zabidin were S Nantha Balan and Nordin Hassan.

The apex court had previously ruled in Indira’s case that the consent of both parents was needed to convert a minor.

The father in question filed a legal challenge in 2016, seeking to quash the unilateral conversion of his two children to Islam.

He also sought a declaration that the children’s certificates of conversion to Islam were null and void, and that they were unlawfully converted.

He claimed his former wife had converted the children with the intention of obtaining custody of them.

The woman converted to Islam in December 2015 while she and her former husband were in the midst of a divorce.

She converted the children at the Federal Territories Islamic religious department in May 2016.

The mother was previously granted the custody of the two children by the Shah Alam High Court but was ordered to surrender the custody to her former husband after another Court of Appeal hearing ruled in favour of the father.

The father was represented by lawyer K Shanmuga while Nizam Bashir appeared for the Federal Territories Islamic religious department’s (Jawi) registrar for new converts, and Arham Rahimy represented the mother. - FMT