Court of Appeal quashes unilateral Muslim conversion of Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children, says Perlis law unconstitutional
The Court of Appeal today unanimously decided to quash the unilateral conversion of three Hindu children to Islam by their Muslim convert father, and ruled in their Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong’s (pic) favour. — Picture by Firdaus Latif
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2024 12:24 PM MYT
PUTRAJAYA, Jan 10 — The Court of Appeal today unanimously decided to quash the unilateral conversion of three Hindu children to Islam by their Muslim convert father, and ruled in their Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong’s favour as it applied the Federal Court’s decision in M. Indira Gandhi’s case.
Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired the three-man panel, also said a Perlis state law provision that allows conversion of children to Islam with just one parent’s consent is unconstitutional.
The Court of Appeal granted all nine orders that Loh asked for in her legal challenge against her children's unilateral conversion to Islam, including declaring the three children are adherents of Hinduism.
In her brief grounds, Hadhariah said the High Court had not addressed the two key issues in the lawsuit, which was whether unilateral conversion is unlawful and whether Section 117(b) of the Perlis state law – which allows unilateral conversion of children to Islam –- is unconstitutional as it contradicts Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution.
"The failure of the High Court judge to answer these two issues is a clear misdirection that is tantamount to an error of law," she said.
Hadhariah also made it clear that the Federal Court's decision in Indira's case – that unilateral conversion is invalid – is still a binding decision on the lower courts, and said Loh did not consent to her three children to become Muslim converts.
"On the issue of unilateral conversion, we are bound by the decision in Indira Gandhi which held that consent of both parents must be obtained before minor children can be converted to other religion.
"In this case, it is not disputed that the appellant mother did not consent to the three children's conversion to Islam," she said.
While all four respondents, including the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) and the Perlis government had this morning tried to argue that the authoritative text of the Federal Constitution should be the Malay language translation instead of the original text in English, the Court of Appeal today stressed that the English text is still the authoritative one.
"In respect of the issue of whether there is a prescription of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Federal Constitution being the authoritative text, we are of the opinion there is no clear evidence that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has prescribed the Bahasa Malaysia Federal Constitution as the authoritative text, hence interpretation of Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution, we are still following the English version.
"Therefore we are bound by the interpretation of Article 12(4) in Indira Gandhi's case, meaning the word 'parent' in Article 12(4) means both parents, therefore Section 117(b) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam Enactment 2006 is unconstitutional," Hadhariah said.
Section 117(b) originally required the consent of “ibu dan bapa” (mother and father) for children or those aged below 18 to convert to Islam, but Perlis amended it in 2016 to allow the conversion of children if there is consent from “ibu atau bapa” (mother or father).
This means that the Court of Appeal today declared the current Section 117(b) – which allowed children to be converted to Islam without getting both parents' consent – is against the Federal Constitution.
The other two judges on today’s panel are Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli.
MORE TO COME
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2024 12:24 PM MYT
PUTRAJAYA, Jan 10 — The Court of Appeal today unanimously decided to quash the unilateral conversion of three Hindu children to Islam by their Muslim convert father, and ruled in their Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong’s favour as it applied the Federal Court’s decision in M. Indira Gandhi’s case.
Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired the three-man panel, also said a Perlis state law provision that allows conversion of children to Islam with just one parent’s consent is unconstitutional.
The Court of Appeal granted all nine orders that Loh asked for in her legal challenge against her children's unilateral conversion to Islam, including declaring the three children are adherents of Hinduism.
In her brief grounds, Hadhariah said the High Court had not addressed the two key issues in the lawsuit, which was whether unilateral conversion is unlawful and whether Section 117(b) of the Perlis state law – which allows unilateral conversion of children to Islam –- is unconstitutional as it contradicts Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution.
"The failure of the High Court judge to answer these two issues is a clear misdirection that is tantamount to an error of law," she said.
Hadhariah also made it clear that the Federal Court's decision in Indira's case – that unilateral conversion is invalid – is still a binding decision on the lower courts, and said Loh did not consent to her three children to become Muslim converts.
"On the issue of unilateral conversion, we are bound by the decision in Indira Gandhi which held that consent of both parents must be obtained before minor children can be converted to other religion.
"In this case, it is not disputed that the appellant mother did not consent to the three children's conversion to Islam," she said.
While all four respondents, including the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) and the Perlis government had this morning tried to argue that the authoritative text of the Federal Constitution should be the Malay language translation instead of the original text in English, the Court of Appeal today stressed that the English text is still the authoritative one.
"In respect of the issue of whether there is a prescription of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Federal Constitution being the authoritative text, we are of the opinion there is no clear evidence that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has prescribed the Bahasa Malaysia Federal Constitution as the authoritative text, hence interpretation of Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution, we are still following the English version.
"Therefore we are bound by the interpretation of Article 12(4) in Indira Gandhi's case, meaning the word 'parent' in Article 12(4) means both parents, therefore Section 117(b) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam Enactment 2006 is unconstitutional," Hadhariah said.
Section 117(b) originally required the consent of “ibu dan bapa” (mother and father) for children or those aged below 18 to convert to Islam, but Perlis amended it in 2016 to allow the conversion of children if there is consent from “ibu atau bapa” (mother or father).
This means that the Court of Appeal today declared the current Section 117(b) – which allowed children to be converted to Islam without getting both parents' consent – is against the Federal Constitution.
The other two judges on today’s panel are Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli.
MORE TO COME
Pity the children.
ReplyDeletePity u * yr palsu-ness!
DeleteMy PAS contact says "change the constitution or there will be Amoks in the streets".
ReplyDeleteYou know the concept of a. engineering one-way valve ?
ReplyDeleteYou can go through one way easily, but you can never ever go back the other way.
That is how Islam works in Malaysia.
The Race and Religion Warriors are going to fight this all the way .
Anyone Remember the Natrah riots in Singapore ?
The Highest Court in Singapore had ruled that her conversion to Islam was invalid and illegal.
So the Race and Religion Warriors went in rampage.