Apex court to hear woman’s challenge to ‘Muslim’ status on Oct 13

 

The Federal Court is expected to consider whether the civil courts are empowered to hear cases involving the renunciation of religion.

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has fixed Oct 13 to hear a 37-year-old woman’s appeal to challenge her religious status as a Muslim.

The hearing was fixed during a case management earlier this week.

The court also instructed the woman’s lawyers, as well as the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and the state government, who are respondents in the appeal, to file their submissions by Sept 28.

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In May, the apex court granted the woman leave to pursue her appeal, on six legal questions.

The woman, who originally professed the Hindu faith, was still a child when she was converted to Islam unilaterally by her mother.

Born in 1986, she said the conversion took place in 1991 at the Selangor Islamic religious department’s (Jais) office while her parents were in the midst of a divorce, which was finalised a year later.

Her mother went on to marry a Muslim man in 1993, and her father died in an accident three years later.

The woman contends that despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith, which she had been born into.

In 2021, the Shah Alam High Court had granted a declaration that she was not a Muslim.

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However, Mais succeeded in getting the Court of Appeal to reinstate her as a Muslim. Justices Yaacob Sam and Nazlan Ghazali ruled in favour of Mais while Justice NP Ravinthran dissented.

The appeals court, in its majority ruling, held that civil courts were not empowered to hear cases involving the renunciation of religion.

It noted that she had previously filed a suit in the Kuala Lumpur shariah court, seeking a declaration that she was no longer a Muslim, which was rejected.

The woman brought the present civil court action after the shariah court handed down its decision.

In his minority judgment, Ravinthran said the Selangor enactment applicable at the time clearly stated that a person could only convert to Islam upon reaching the age of 18. - FMT