Loh elated over court’s decision in custody case

GEORGE TOWN: Single mother Loh Siew Hong (pic) is elated with the High Court decision to dismiss an application by the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) to intervene in her divorce proceedings.

MAIPs had sought to varying the custody ordered granted to Loh for her three children.

“I am happy. What I want now is to take care of them and they also want to take care of me,” she said yesterday.

Loh, a Hindu of Chinese descent, divorced her husband Nagashwaran Muniandy on March 19, 2019, and was awarded sole custody of her children by the High Court.

She had been unable to see her children for three years after her ex-husband took them away and later unilaterally converted them to Islam in Perlis.

The Perlis Religious Depart-ment had claimed that state laws allowed for unilateral conversions, although the Federal Court previously ruled that both parents must consent, in line with the Federal Constitution.

On Feb 21, the three siblings, who were under the care of the Welfare Department, were returned to Loh after the High Court allowed Loh’s habeas corpus application.

Loh’s lawyer Dr Shamsher Singh Thind said the court ruled that MAIPs had no right to be included as one of the parties in the children’s lives, and had failed to prove that it was needed by the children.

“The children are not orphans and they still have their parents who are the rightful parties in this proceedings,” he told the media.

Shamsher said the court also ruled that the children did not belong to MAIPs and are now living in Selangor, not Perlis.

The proceedings were conducted after MAIPs sought to change terms relating to the children’s custody previously given to Loh in divorce proceedings, to enable it to provide Islamic education and training as well as tithes to her 14-year-old twin daughters and 10-year-old son.

MAIPs claimed the application was made because the children were converted to Islam by their father in 2020.