Court declares woman abandoned at birth in KL to be a Malaysian citizen, orders new birth certificate

 

Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, who was chairing the three-judge panel, and fellow Court of Appeal judge Datuk S. Nantha Balan were in favour of declaring the woman as a Malaysian citizen, after finding that the facts of her case matched those of babies abandoned at birth. — Bernama pic

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — The Court of Appeal in a majority decision today found that a woman who was born in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur was abandoned at birth, and declared that she is a Malaysian citizen.

The woman, who is due to turn 23 this year, has been waiting since the age of 12 for Malaysia to recognise her as a Malaysian citizen.

The woman, identified only as G for privacy purposes, had been in the care of her adoptive Malaysian parents since she was just a week old.

Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, who was chairing the three-judge panel, and fellow Court of Appeal judge Datuk S. Nantha Balan were in favour of declaring the woman as a Malaysian citizen, after finding that the facts of her case matched those of babies abandoned at birth.

In reading the broad grounds of the majority decision in favour of G, judge Datuk S. Nantha Balan said the Court of Appeal was bound by the Federal Court’s November 2021 decision in a similar case involving a child abandoned at birth at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur and who was later also adopted by Malaysian parents.

In allowing the appeal by the woman G in her citizenship bid, judge Nantha Balan read out the three orders granted in her favour.

The first order is a declaration that G is a citizen of Malaysia by operation of law, by virtue of her birth within the federation of Malaysia, pursuant to Article 14(1)(b), Section 1(a) of Part II of Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution, read together with Section 19B of Part III of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution”.

The second order granted was a certiorari order to quash the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths Malaysia’s decision in issuing and signing a birth certificate to G which had registered her to be a non-citizen instead of as a citizen of Malaysia.

The third and final court order granted by the Court of Appeal today was a mandamus order to direct the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths Malaysia to “reissue birth certificate” of G to “register her as a citizen of Malaysia”.

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- malaymail