KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): The Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) has sought to recuse High Court judge Evrol Mariette Peters from presiding over its application to intervene in the custody order given to single mother Loh Siew Hong.
MAIPs expressed this via a letter to the court dated March 20, highlighting Peters' decision in June last year which dismissed its leave (permission) application.
In the letter, MAIPs claimed that Peters was mistaken in her judgement when she touched on the merits of the case, namely the children's religion and the variation order which was not at the High Court at that point.
The matter came up for case management on Wednesday (April 5) before Peters, who said she would take this into consideration and will deliver her decision on the matter on April 19.
Peters, when dismissing MAIPs’ leave application last year, said that the state religious body failed to show that it was an interested party in relation to all three of the underage children who were converted to Islam by Loh's ex-husband without her consent.
In early February this year, the Court of Appeal (COA) allowed MAIPs' appeal to intervene in Loh's divorce proceedings, making the council a respondent in the matter. It had subsequently filed the application to vary the custody order to the High Court on Feb 17.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, MAIPs was represented by lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, while Loh was represented by J Gunamalar, and M Vhimall appeared for her ex-husband Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy.
At the proceedings, Loh’s lawyer Gunamalar informed the court that they are appealing the COA decision. They have filed for leave (permission) to the apex court, and the matter is set for case management on Thursday.
Thus, she said that a stay over MAIPs' application to intervene has been filed until the matter is exhausted at the Federal Court.
In its application to vary the custody order, MAIPs is seeking, among others, supervised access to the children twice a week for guidance and basic religious education, and to take them to observe Islamic celebrations.
Earlier, Peters had fined Muhammad Nagahswaran RM20,000 for contempt of court. She also ruled that should he fail to pay the sum within 14 days, he will be liable to 14 days' imprisonment.
Besides this, Loh has also filed a judicial review challenging the unilateral conversion of her children. High Court judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh has set May 11 to deliver his decision.