KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): A woman at the centre of a court battle over her religious status has been granted leave by the apex court to challenge the Court of Appeal (COA)’s decision to reinstate her as Muslim.
A three-member panel led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli on Monday (May 22) granted the leave after there were no objections from the respondents, namely the Selangor state government and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais).
Besides the four questions of law at the core of the 36-year-old woman’s appeal, the panel also allowed two additional questions — one each from the respondents.
The others on the panel included Federal Court judges Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan.
The woman's identity has been withheld by the press at the request of her lawyers.
Among the questions posed to the apex court was on the effective date of conversion: whether it is the date of the actual conversion or the date of issuance of a conversion card.
Another question is whether section 74(3) of the Administration of Islamic Law Enactment 1989 (Selangor) ousts the jurisdiction of the High Court to determine the validity of a minor’s conversion to Islam.
The Selangor state government was allowed to ask whether the civil courts have the powers to reverse a finding of facts made by the shariah courts in the determination of Islamic law matters and doctrine.
Whereas Mais was allowed to put a question citing the landmark case of another woman, Rosliza Ibrahim. The religious council wants the apex court to determine whether Rosliza's case will be limited as a prospective ruling.
In Rosliza's landmark decision, the apex court ruled that the shariah court was the avenue for renunciation cases, whereas the civil court was the avenue for ab-initio cases (not-Muslim to begin with).
Mais is arguing that the decision in Rosliza's case should apply only to cases that came after the February 2021 decision and that it will not have any retrospective effect on any past decisions.
Following Monday's decision, the apex court will now hear the full merits of the appeal on another date.
2-1 decision to reinstate her as Muslim
On January 13, the appelate court in a majority decision had allowed Mais and the state government’s appeals to reinstate the woman as a Muslim.
COA judges Datuk Yaacob Md Sam and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the woman had failed to establish that she was not a person who professed the religion of Islam, and that her suit in the High Court fell outside the jurisdiction of the civil courts.
They added that her status as a Muslim was already determined by the Shariah High Court and the Shariah Court of Appeal, and that she had no locus standi (legal standing) to relitigate a similar matter in the civil courts.
Judge Datuk P Ravinthran, who delivered the dissenting judgement, affirmed the High Court's decision and dismissed the appeals.
He noted that the alleged conversion was anything but lawful and also said that there was no evidence that the woman underwent a conversion ceremony at a later date, or even after puberty.
The High Court had in December 2021 granted the woman a declaratory order that she was not a person professing the religion of Islam.
Mais and the state government were named as the defendants in her originating summons filed in May 2021.
Converted when she was around five years old
Earlier, the woman had also filed a summons in the Shariah High Court against the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council in 2013, seeking a declaration that she was no longer Muslim. This was dismissed in July 2017.
Subsequently, she appealed the decision in the Shariah Court of Appeal in August 2017, but this was dismissed in January 2021.
The woman was born to a non-Muslim couple in November 1986.
Amid divorce proceedings, her mother embraced Islam in 1991, and the woman was converted at the same time, when she was around four years and five months old.
Her father did not know about the conversion and did not give consent for the conversion up until his death in 1996.
The woman has also asserted that she has been practising the Hindu religion, frequenting temples, and that her mother and stepfather had allowed her to profess and practise her chosen faith.
Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Surendra Ananth appeared for the woman. State legal adviser Datuk Salim Soib appeared for the Selangor government, while Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla represented Mais.