MAIPs’s bid to challenge unilateral conversion ruling fixed for May 14

 

The Perlis religious authorities want to appeal a Court of Appeal decision holding that the unilateral conversion of Loh Siew Hong’s children to Islam in 2020 was unconstitutional.

PETALING JAYA: The Federal Court has fixed May 14 to hear applications by the Perlis state and religious authorities for leave to appeal a Court of Appeal decision which ruled that the unilateral conversion of three minor children four years ago was unconstitutional.

On Jan 10, the Court of Appeal unanimously declared the unilateral conversion of single mother Loh Siew Hong’s three minor children invalid.

Lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind, a member of the legal team representing Loh, said senior assistant registrar Wan Norazimin Kassim fixed the date during case management conducted online yesterday.

“The proceedings will take place in open court,” he told FMT.

The leave applications were filed by the state government, the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs), the registrar of converts, and state mufti Asri Zainul Abidin.

MAIPs has framed four questions of laws which it says merit a full hearing of the appeal, including whether the ruling in a landmark Federal Court decision handed down in 2018 was wrong since the court did not follow the Bahasa Malaysia text of the Federal Constitution.

The other three have also filed similar legal questions to obtain leave.

Under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, leave is granted only if there are novel constitutional or legal questions of public importance raised for the first time.

The four applicants want the apex court to revisit its ruling in a case brought by M Indira Gandhi to declare her children’s conversion invalid.

In that case, a five-member apex court bench unanimously ruled that the conversion of minor children requires the consent of both parents, even if one spouse has subsequently embraced Islam.

Loh’s children were unilaterally converted to Islam by her former husband, Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, in Perlis in 2020.

She took the matter to the High Court, seeking a declaration that a provision in the state enactment allowing a parent to unilaterally convert minor children was unconstitutional.

The application was dismissed, with the High Court saying there was no evidence that the three children stopped professing Islam after she gained custody of them.

The High Court also held that the Perlis state registrar of converts was satisfied that the legal requirements of Section 107(1) of a 2006 Perlis state enactment had been adhered to and that the children had professed the shahadah proclamation voluntarily.

However, the ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeal which ruled that it was bound by the Federal Court’s pronouncement in Indira’s case. - FMT