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Saturday, May 27, 2023

Govt appeals to set aside order declaring boy ‘citizen’


FMT:

Govt appeals to set aside order declaring boy ‘citizen’


However, lawyer says the Attorney-General’s Chambers have not served any stay application of the High Court order made last week.



The national registration department is appealing a May 18 High Court decision that declared the five-year-old a Malaysian citizen. (Bernama pic)


KUALA LUMPUR: The government has filed an appeal to reverse a High Court order requiring the director-general of the national registration department (JPN) to issue a birth certificate to a five-year-old boy reflecting his status as a Malaysian citizen.

Lawyer Marcus Lee said his firm was served with a copy of the notice of appeal filed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

“However, we are not aware of any application made by the AGC to stay the High Court order made last week pending the hearing of the appeal,” he told FMT.

On May 18, Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ordered JPN to issue a birth certificate within 30 days to reflect the boy’s status as a Malaysian citizen.

In his ruling, Wan Ahmad Farid took cognisance of a DNA report, which was not disputed by JPN, confirming that the applicant was the boy’s biological father.

In an oral ruling delivered online, Wan Ahmad Farid held that the boy had fulfilled all requirements of Article 14 of the Federal Constitution read with paragraph 1(a) of Part II to its First Schedule, making him a citizen “by operation of law”.

Prior to filing the suit, the father had, in November 2021, applied to JPN for his son’s birth certificate to reflect his Malaysian citizenship but received no reply.

Despite a letter of demand sent in March last year, JPN rejected his application.

The plaintiff then filed for judicial review in June last year, seeking a declaration that the boy is a citizen of Malaysia by operation of law.

In his affidavit in support of the application made in June last year, the boy’s father, a 27-year-old hawker, said his son was born in July 2018 at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur, a month before his marriage to the boy’s Vietnamese mother was registered.

However, the birth certificate issued by JPN classified the boy as a non-citizen.


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