KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Single mother Loh Siew Hong's former husband Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy was fined RM20,000 for contempt of court on Wednesday (April 5).
High Court judge Evrol Mariette Peters ruled that should he fail to pay the sum within 14 days, he will be liable to 14 days' imprisonment.
Peters also said Muhammad Nagahswaran had interfered with the administration of justice and noted that counsels did not dispute that the 35-year-old did not comply with previous court orders.
"It is ... crucial to remind all parties concerned that [Muhammad Nagashwaran]'s non-compliance with court orders has nothing to do with merely upholding the dignity of the court, but rather, it has everything to do with the court's duty to ensure that the administration of justice shall not be obstructed or prevented.
"In other words, the objective of the law of contempt is not to protect the judges, but it is to protect the rights of the public. Hence the message that the court must send has to be clear and unequivocal," she said.
In September last year, Peters granted an ex-parte (one-sided) application for leave (permission) to Loh so she could initiate committal proceedings against her ex-husband, who has been accused of abducting their three children and registering them as Muslim converts without her consent.
Muhammad Nagahswaran had subsequently filed an application for, among others, this order to be set aside.
On Wednesday, the High Court judge dismissed his application and allowed Loh's application for committal proceedings. The court had also awarded Loh costs of RM6,000.
Loh filed for divorce in December 2019, and the divorce was finalised in September 2021.
Throughout this period, she obtained several court orders for sole custody of her children but claimed that she was prevented from seeing them by her husband. In March 2021, she secured a final court order giving her full and sole custody of her children. Despite this, she claimed that her children were still kept from her.
Loh was finally reunited with her children in February last year, when the court allowed her habeas corpus application.
She had also initiated contempt proceedings in January 2020 for Muhammad Nagahswaran' non-compliance of a December 2019 court order and leave was granted by the courts. However, Loh withdrew this in October 2020.
In her ruling on Wednesday, Peters noted that the application had not commenced due to factors that were beyond Loh's control, namely the Covid-19 pandemic, her ex-husband evading service and failure to attend court.
Peters said Muhammad Nagahswaran's failure to comply with the first court order had "triggered a chain of events" which gave Loh the runaround, filing applications to reunite with her children.
"It also deprived the children of their mother after being passed around from one person to another," she said.
The Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) has also sought to intervene in the custody order granted to Loh. The matter also came up for case management on Wednesday.
In early February this year, the Court of Appeal allowed the state religious body's appeal to intervene in the custody order granted to Loh.
MAIPs was appealing the decision Peters made in June last year. She dismissed its application to intervene, finding that the council had failed to show that it was an interested party in relation to the children.
Besides this, Loh has also filed a judicial review challenging the unilateral conversion of her three children — twin girls who are now 14 years old and a boy who is now 11 years old. High Court judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh has set May 11 to deliver his decision.
Loh was represented by J Gunamalar while M Vhimall appeared for Muhammad Nagahswaran. Lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar appeared for MAIPs.