June 21 hearing of govt's bid to stay order granting citizenship to child

 

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has fixed June 21 to hear the government’s application to stay a court order granting citizenship to a five-year-old boy.

The family’s counsel Marcus Lee said the stay was sought pending disposal of the government’s appeal at the Court of Appeal against the main civil court ruling that directed the National Registration Department (NRD) to issue a birth certificate to the child to reflect his status as a Malaysian citizen.

“(It is) Sad to know that the government lawyer filed (a) stay application too at the High Court.

“The hearing will be on June 21,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini recently.

On May 18, the High Court ordered NRD to issue the birth certificate within 30 days to reflect the boy’s status as a Malaysian.

Free Malaysia Today reported that judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh acknowledged a DNA report, which was not disputed by the NRD, confirming that the applicant was the boy’s biological father.

In an affidavit in support of the judicial review application made by the boy’s father last June, the 27-year-old man said his son was born in July 2018 at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

This, he said, was a month before his marriage to the boy’s Vietnamese mother was registered.

However, the birth certificate issued by NRD classified the boy as a non-citizen.

‘Unnecessary appeal’

On May 26, Lee, who represented the boy’s father, told FMT that his law firm received a copy of the appeal notice filed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

However, the lawyer said his team was not aware of any application by the AGC to stay the High Court order, pending disposal of the appeal.

In a media statement a day later (May 27), Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) urged the government to withdraw its appeal, while condemning Putrajaya’s move and calling it an “unjust and unnecessary appeal”.

The NGO’s director Zaid Malek questioned the government’s objective through the appeal when Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had already acknowledged that statelessness is a serious national issue.

In January, he set up a special committee to address the problem of statelessness in the country.

“Yet, this appeal indicates that the Pakatan Harapan-led government is not serious about addressing statelessness.

“Worse, it continues to perpetuate the problem by prolonging the issue by filing an unmeritorious appeal to render this unfortunate child stateless for life,” Zaid said. - Mkini