FMT:
July hearing to stop MAIPs from intervening in custody case
The Court of Appeal in February said the Perlis religious authority had a legal right to be made a party.
Loh Siew Hong is seeking to overturn a Court of Appeal ruling which allowed the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) to intervene in a custody hearing involving her three children.
PUTRAJAYA: Single mother Loh Siew Hong’s application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court a ruling allowing the Perlis religious authority to intervene in an application to vary a custody order made over her three children will be heard on July 6.
Loh’s lawyer Gunamalar Joorindanjn said the date was fixed after a case management before deputy registrar Rasidah Roslee.
“Parties have also been instructed to file their written submissions two weeks before the hearing,” she said.
Lawyer Danial Farhan represented the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) in today’s online proceedings.
Loh’s application, filed last month seeking leave to appeal a Feb 7 Court of Appeal ruling, identified four questions of law which she said the apex court needed to determine.
Loh is asking the apex court to determine whether MAIPs has passed the threshold under Rules of Court 2012 to be made a party in the custody matter.
Another question relates to whether Section 3(3) of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 operates to prohibit MAIPs from being made a party to vary the custody order.
Section 3(3) stipulates that the Act does not apply to Muslims or persons married under Islamic law.
Loh is also asking the Federal Court to rule as to whether the Court of Appeal’s decision went against Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution which states that the religion of a child shall be decided on by his parent or guardian.
Justice Has Zanah Mehat, who led a three-member Court of Appeal bench, held that MAIPs had made out a case under Order 15 Rule 6(2) of the Rules of Court 2012, read with Section 96 of the Law Reform Act.
She said a reading of the two provisions would confer upon the religious body a legal right to intervene.
A High Court order had last year refused to allow MAIPs to intervene in the action.
Loh’s former husband, Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, is said to have taken the children to Perlis, where he unilaterally converted them to Islam on July 7, 2020.
The 15-year-old twin girls and an 11-year-old son were placed under the care and control of preacher Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah.
On March 31, 2020, the High Court granted Loh full custody of the children while her divorce from Nagahswaran was finalised on Sept 23, 2021.
Loh also took out a habeas corpus application in the High Court, which was allowed by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah in February last year.
That decision paved the way for a reunion between the mother and her children.
In March 2022, Loh filed a judicial review application to challenge the children’s unilateral conversion, and the High Court in Kuala Lumpur will deliver its ruling on May 11.
PUTRAJAYA: Single mother Loh Siew Hong’s application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court a ruling allowing the Perlis religious authority to intervene in an application to vary a custody order made over her three children will be heard on July 6.
Loh’s lawyer Gunamalar Joorindanjn said the date was fixed after a case management before deputy registrar Rasidah Roslee.
“Parties have also been instructed to file their written submissions two weeks before the hearing,” she said.
Lawyer Danial Farhan represented the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) in today’s online proceedings.
Loh’s application, filed last month seeking leave to appeal a Feb 7 Court of Appeal ruling, identified four questions of law which she said the apex court needed to determine.
Loh is asking the apex court to determine whether MAIPs has passed the threshold under Rules of Court 2012 to be made a party in the custody matter.
Another question relates to whether Section 3(3) of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 operates to prohibit MAIPs from being made a party to vary the custody order.
Section 3(3) stipulates that the Act does not apply to Muslims or persons married under Islamic law.
Loh is also asking the Federal Court to rule as to whether the Court of Appeal’s decision went against Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution which states that the religion of a child shall be decided on by his parent or guardian.
Justice Has Zanah Mehat, who led a three-member Court of Appeal bench, held that MAIPs had made out a case under Order 15 Rule 6(2) of the Rules of Court 2012, read with Section 96 of the Law Reform Act.
She said a reading of the two provisions would confer upon the religious body a legal right to intervene.
A High Court order had last year refused to allow MAIPs to intervene in the action.
Loh’s former husband, Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, is said to have taken the children to Perlis, where he unilaterally converted them to Islam on July 7, 2020.
The 15-year-old twin girls and an 11-year-old son were placed under the care and control of preacher Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah.
On March 31, 2020, the High Court granted Loh full custody of the children while her divorce from Nagahswaran was finalised on Sept 23, 2021.
Loh also took out a habeas corpus application in the High Court, which was allowed by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah in February last year.
That decision paved the way for a reunion between the mother and her children.
In March 2022, Loh filed a judicial review application to challenge the children’s unilateral conversion, and the High Court in Kuala Lumpur will deliver its ruling on May 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment