Apex Court Dismisses Woman’s Appeal To Overturn Muslim Status

PUTRAJAYA, May 3 (Bernama) -- A 37-year-old woman who was converted to Islam when she was a child, lost her final appeal at the Federal Court, to overturn a Court of Appeal decision to reinstate her as a Muslim.

A three-judge panel consisting of Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, dismissed the woman's appeal by a 2-1 majority decision.

Judges Abang Iskandar and Abu Bakar dismissed the woman’s appeal, while Justice Mary Lim decided in favour of the woman.

In the majority decision delivered online, Justice Abang Iskandar said the woman’s case did not fall under the category that she was never a Muslim.

He said the woman was a Muslim since her childhood when she was legally in the care and custody of her Muslim convert mother, adding that the woman was raised and brought up on the basis she was a Muslim.

Justice Abang Iskandar said although the woman’s conversion to Islam at the age of five years old was invalid by virtue of section 147 of the Administration of Muslim Law Enactment 1952, that invalidity did not mean that she was “never a Muslim”

He said the Shariah Courts’ decision to dismiss the woman’s application to renounce islam is valid and enforceable, until and unless the decision is set aside.

In allowing the woman’s appeal, Justice Mary Lim, meanwhile, ruled that the woman was never a Muslim as her conversion to Islam was invalid. 

She said the woman who was seeking a declaration regarding her religious status is entitled to seek remedy in the Civil Court.

Justice Mary Lim also said the woman’s reason for initially going to the Shariah Courts in Kuala Lumpur to renounce Islam due to the prevailing law at that time following the decision of the Federal Court in Lina Joy was reasonable and cannot be held against her.

She added that the Federal Territories Shariah Courts has no power or authority to determine the woman’s conversion under the Islamic Legislation of Selangor. She added that each state has its own distinct and separate laws on the religion of islam.

The woman said she was born a Hindu to non-Muslim parents, and she was still a child when she was converted to Islam by her mother in 1991. Her father passed away in 1996. She added that her mother married a Muslim man after divorcing her father. She also said that, despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and her stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith which she was born into. 

On Dec 12, 2013, the woman filed a summons at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court, for a declaration that she was no longer a Muslim. On July 20, 2017, the Syariah High Court dismissed her summons, and on Aug 1, 2017, the Syariah Court of Appeal also dismissed her appeal.

She then filed a lawsuit at the civil High Court seeking a declaration that she is not a person professing the religion of Islam, and named the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) and the Selangor government as respondents.

On Dec 21, 2021, the High Court in Shah Alam allowed the woman’s suit and declared that she is not a Muslim, but that decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Jan 13, last year, in a 2-1 majority decision, following the appeals by MAIS and the Selangor government.

Lawyers Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, A. Surendra Ananth and Wong Ming Yen represented the woman; while lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Majdah Muda acted for MAIS; and Selangor state legal adviser Datuk Salim Soib@Hamid and assistant state legal adviser Khairul Nizam Abu Bakar, appeared for the Selangor government.

--BERNAMA