KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The Federal Court has dismissed a 38 year-old woman’s bid to review an apex court decision affirming her religious status as “Muslim”.
A three-member panel led by Federal Court judge Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof said on Monday that the woman’s case did not present an exceptional circumstance to warrant a review.
“A review is not warranted for mere differences in interpretation of the law [...] The determination of the applicant’s status was based on facts, not purely on law. It is not for this court to consider whether the earlier panel had made a correct or not decision on the facts,” she said.
The court dismissed the application with no order as to cost.
The review is against the Federal Court’s decision in May last year, which dismissed the woman’s challenge to change her religious status as a Muslim, in a majority decision.
In gist, the woman whose identity is withheld at the request of her counsels, maintains that her unilateral conversion as a minor and the validity of the conversion certification was illegal, as it contradicted the enforced state enactment at that time.
During her conversion, the administration of Muslim Law Enactment 1952 was still in force, with Section 147 explicitly stating that no person who has not obtained the age of puberty shall be converted.
The woman, born to a non-Muslim couple in 1986, was converted to Muslim around the age of four by her mother, who embraced Islam in May 1991. A conversion card was issued to the woman two years later in 1993.
In its majority decision, the apex court in May said that the invalidity of a conversion certification, did not mean that the woman was never a Muslim in the first place. They ruled that the woman was placed under the care and custody of her Muslim-convert mother and the woman’s upbringing also needs to be evaluated.
The woman’s bid to review this decision was premised on two grounds, that there was infringement of the law, and a breach of natural justice.
In their unanimous decision on Monday, Zabariah, along with apex court judges Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang and Datuk Vazeer Alam Meera, said that the apex court’s decision was not an infringement of the law or statutory provisions, but rather was an interpretation of the law within the specific case.
“[The applicant among others] argued that the majority decision contravenes Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution [...] that an individual can be considered a Muslim without his or her consent.
“[...] This in our view is not an infringement of the law or statutory provisions, rather interpretation of the law to the given facts [of the case].
“The majority read [the specific sections] holistically with other provisions in the same enactment pertaining to conversion,” the panel ruled.
The woman was represented by Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Surendra Ananth. Respondents Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) was represented by Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, while Selangor state legal adviser Datuk Salim Soib @ Hamid appeared for the state government.
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Woman’s challenge against COA decision to reinstate her as Muslim to be heard at the Fed Court on May 22