Mais wins appeal to reinstate woman's Muslim status

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here has reinstated the Muslim status of a 36-year-old woman after allowing an appeal by Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais).

In a 2-1 decision, Court of Appeal judges Justice Yaacob Sam, who chaired the panel, and Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali were of the opinion that the civil courts did not have the jurisdiction to review a decision in a renunciation case.

"We reiterate that we find the originating summons (OS) filed in the Shah Alam High Court for the declaration that the respondent was not a Muslim to be a matter that must fall under the Syariah and not civil jurisdiction.

"The judicial determination of the respondent's status had already been made by the KL Syariah Court and affirmed by the Syariah Court of Appeal," said Justice Mohd Nazlan who read the decision here on Friday (Jan 13).

The judge said as the respondent's religious status had already been determined by the Syariah courts, an OS in a civil court was "res judicata and potentially an abuse of court process".

"Since her status as a Muslim has already been judicially determined by the Syariah Courts, the respondent has no locus to re-litigate a similar application before civil High Court by way of this OS.

"As such, the appeals are allowed, and the decision of the High Court (which allowed the respondent's OS) is set aside," Justice Mohd Nazlan said.

The court did not make any order as to costs.

Meanwhile, Justice N.P. Ravinthran, who was the dissenting judge, said the High Court did not err when it allowed the respondent's OS as the suit was not related to the issue of renunciation of religion and was done to challenge the respondent's unilateral conversion to Islam.

Mais and the Selangor state government were appealing against the High Court’s decision on Dec 21, 2021 which nullified the woman’s conversion to Islam by her Muslim-convert mother when she was four years old.

The woman, born in Selangor to a Hindu father and a Buddhist mother who later converted to Islam, filed the OS in the Shah Alam High Court on May 10, 2021, seeking a declaration that she is not a Muslim and wanted the National Registration Department (NRD) to remove the word “Islam” from her identity card.

She claimed that her mother converted her to Islam in 1991 at the Selangor Islamic Religious Department.

At the time, her parents were in the midst of a divorce. After the divorce, her mother married a Muslim man in 1993 while her father died in an accident in 1996.

The woman said despite her conversion into Islam, she continued to profess the Hindu religion and that her mother and stepfather allowed her to practise Hindu — the religion she was initially born with.

In 2013, the woman filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court seeking to renounce Islam but her application for renunciation was dismissed in 2017, and she was ordered to attend a series of counselling sessions. The Syariah Appeals Court also upheld the ruling.

The woman then filed the suit in the Shah Alam High Court (civil) on May 10, 2021 and succeeded in getting a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

In its appeal, Mais argued that the High Court erred in allowing the woman’s declaratory application, contending that the High Court’s decision was a transgression of Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution.

Article 121 (1A) gives the powers to the Syariah Courts to hear and decide disputes relating to the Islamic religion.