Court quashes sisters’ 2018 conversion to Islam

 High Court says their late mother disregarded her estranged husband’s rights by registering their daughters as Muslims while they were still legally married.

The Shah Alam High Court allowed a father’s application and quashed the unilateral conversion of his two minor daughters by their mother eight years ago.

SHAH ALAM:

The High Court here has quashed the unilateral conversion of two sisters to Islam by their late mother.

The sisters – identified as X and Y – were converted by their late mother at two locations in Pahang and Selangor in 2018, when they were nine and seven years old respectively.

X is now 17, while Y will turn 15 this year.

At the time, their parents were estranged, and their biological father, identified as L, had left the country to work elsewhere.

The father later discovered that his estranged wife had filed a petition to dissolve their marriage and obtained custody of the sisters.

After the mother’s death in 2023, L found out for the first time that his daughters had been converted to Islam.

He filed a judicial review seeking to quash their conversions, naming the Pahang and Selangor governments, as well as their respective religious departments, as respondents.

Justice S Narkunavathy allowed the father’s application, stating that the court was bound by the Federal Court’s 2018 ruling in the case of M Indira Gandhi, which held that both parents must consent before a child’s religion can be changed.

The 2018 decision was later affirmed in another judicial review brought by a father involving his two children, as well as the case involving Loh Siew Hong’s three children.

“This court is bound by the definitive precedent in Indira Gandhi, wherein the Federal Court removed any remaining ambiguity surrounding Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution (on the religion of children) and its application,” Narkunavathy said.

“The purposive interpretation of the word ‘parent’ in that provision requires the consent of both parents. This is not merely a linguistic choice but a constitutional safeguard intended to protect the joint rights of both mother and father in the religious upbringing of their child,” she added.

The judge also pointed out that when the late mother registered the sisters as Muslims, she had yet to obtain full custody of them.

“This court finds that by unilaterally converting the children before being granted legal custody, the mother had acted in total disregard of the father’s rights as a joint guardian at the time,” Narkunavathy said.

The court also addressed the Selangor government’s argument that the Bahasa Melayu version of the Federal Constitution was the authoritative text.

The national language version states that either the father or mother may determine a child’s religion and upbringing.

However, Narkunavathy said there had never been any formal gazette notification informing the public that the Bahasa Melayu version was the authoritative text.

“This court finds that the launch ceremony held in 2003 was a symbolic and administrative event. It cannot constitute a formal prescription in the constitutional sense.

“A letter from His Royal Highness (then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail) is an expression of intent. While historically significant, it is insufficient to meet the constitutional requirements.

“The letter cannot bypass the legislative and constitutional process required to alter the authoritative language of the supreme law of the land,” she said.

Both state governments have filed appeals against the decision. - FMT