Feb 20 hearing for Perlis suit to review Loh Siew Hong decision

 

Single mother Loh Siew Hong has filed an application to oppose the Perlis state government’s move to review the religious status of her children.

PUTRAJAYA: 

The Federal Court has set Feb 20 for a hearing on a Perlis state government application that seeks to reinstate the religious status of Loh Siew Hong’s three children as Muslims.

Loh’s lawyer A. Srimurugan confirmed the hearing date after a case management today. Daniel Farhan Zainul Rijal represented the Perlis government.

The state government is applying to the Federal Court to review and set aside the court’s earlier decision denying leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal decision declaring the three children as Hindus and nullifying their conversion to Islam.

In its application, the state government contends that the previous ruling had severely compromised its right to be heard, and seeks a rehearing of the application for leave to appeal.

Loh has filed an affidavit opposing the review application.

The application to seek leave to appeal was dismissed by the Federal Court on May 14. It prevented the Perlis Islamic religious and Malay customs council, the Perlis registrar of converts, and Perlis Mufti Asri Zainul Abidin from proceeding with their appeals against the Court of Appeal decision.

Loh, a 37-year-old single mother, had gone to the Federal Court in March 2022, seeking a declaration that her three children are Hindus. She asserted that her former husband, M. Nagahswaran, who converted to Islam, lacked the legal capacity to register their children as converts without her consent.

The three children, who had been placed under the care of the welfare department, had been returned to Loh a month before, after the High Court granted her habeas corpus application. - FMT