Woman makes another attempt to challenge status as Muslim

FMT: 

Woman makes another

attempt to challenge status

as Muslim

V Anbalagan

-23 Oct 2024, 04:30 PM

The woman says a Federal Court ruling on May 3 dismissing her appeal was made in excess of jurisdiction and violated the rules of natural justice.

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A 38-year-old woman, whose challenge to her unilateral conversion as a child was dismissed by the Federal Court earlier this year, would have her application for leave to review that decision heard on Jan 6.

PUTRAJAYA: 

A 38-year-old woman is making a second attempt in the Federal Court to obtain a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

Her lawyer A Surendra Ananth said an application was filed under Rules 78 and 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995. The application seeks to set aside a “per incuriam” majority ruling delivered by the apex court on May 3. A per incuriam decision is one which is wrong at law.

The application, filed two months ago, stated that the decision was made in excess of jurisdiction and violated the rules of natural justice.

The woman named the Selangor government as the respondent to the application.

She wants the court to set aside the previous majority ruling. She also wants a fresh panel to rehear the appeal.

Surendra said the application for leave to review the decision would be heard on Jan 6.

In the majority ruling, Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Justice Abu Bakar Jais took the view that the appeal had no merit.

Justice Mary Lim, who has since retired, dissented.

The woman, who originally professed the Hindu faith, was still a child when she was converted to Islam unilaterally by her mother at the office of the Selangor Islamic religious department (Jais) in 1991.

The conversion took place while her parents were in the midst of a divorce, which was finalised in 1992. Her mother went on to marry a Muslim man in 1993, while her father died in an accident three years later.

The woman, born in 1986, contended that despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith, which she had been born into.

Abang Iskandar said there was no dispute that the woman had gone to the shariah courts in Kuala Lumpur previously, seeking to renounce Islam. The judge said the shariah courts’ dismissal of her application stands.

Lim said the shariah courts in Kuala Lumpur did not have jurisdiction to hear the woman’s application since the purported conversion took place in Shah Alam.

“The federal territories’ shariah courts have no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the Administration of Religion of Islam (Selangor) Enactment.

“(The appellant) was not born a Muslim and was unilaterally converted by her mother when she was a child,” she said.

Lim also said a person could only be assumed to be a Muslim if she uttered with understanding the affirmation of faith (kalimah shahadah).

The judge said the woman’s previous application to renounce her faith at the shariah courts was not tantamount to a submission to the jurisdiction of the Islamic court.