KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) has filed an application for leave (permission) to challenge the Court of Appeal (COA) decision that single mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children's unilateral conversion as unconstitutional.
The leave application was filed on Thursday (Feb 8) through its counsels at the Chambers of Zainul Rijal where the state religious authority posed four constitutional questions and questions of law to the apex court.
Besides unanimously ruling that the unilateral conversion of Loh's minor kids was unconstitutional, the COA on Jan 10 also granted the reliefs sought by the 36-year-old single mother, which include that the children are Hindu and that their conversion certificate is null and void.
Per the reliefs sought, the court also ruled that the state enactment, namely Section 117(B) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam 2006 which allows unilateral conversion of a minor, is unconstitutional and invalid.
The court noted that on the issue of unilateral conversion, it was bound by the landmark 2018 Indira Gandhi case which held that both parents’ permission must be obtained before minor children can be converted to another religion.
It has to be noted that in the 2018 landmark decision, the apex court unanimously said that the English version of the Federal Constitution is authoritative. This is because it has not been shown that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) had prescribed the Malay translation to prevail over the English language one.
The apex court said that in Indira’s case, the English version of the word “parent” in Article 12(4) Federal Constitution refers to both parents and prevails over the Malay translation of “ibu atau bapa” (mother or father).
In Loh's case, the COA also ruled that there was no evidence of such a prescription by the YDPA that the Malay version of the text is authoritative.
Loh filed a judicial review in March 2022, seeking declarations that her children are Hindu — her ex-husband Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy’s religion prior to his conversion — and to reverse the registration of her children’s conversion to Islam in July 2020.
The High Court dismissed her application in May 2023, ruling that the three children had not stopped professing the religion of Islam even under Loh’s care, thus the status quo ought to be maintained for the children's welfare.
Loh had filed for divorce from her ex-husband in December 2019, which was finalised in September 2021. In March 2021, she secured a final court order, giving her full and sole custody of the three children.
Despite this, she claimed that her children were kept from her, as they had been placed under the care of the Social Welfare Department. She was finally reunited with them when the High Court granted her habeas corpus application in February last year.