KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans with the wrong religious status on their identity cards will benefit from Friday's (Aug 16) High Court ruling in the case of Rieno Glant Oleant George, who sought to have it changed.
Senior lawyer Datuk Roger Chin said Rieno's case against the Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) director was significant.
He noted that the High Court ruled that the plaintiff, mistakenly registered as a Muslim on his MyKad despite being raised as a Christian, was never a Muslim and should not be subject to the Syariah Court's jurisdiction.
He said the High Court declared that the NRD's requirement for an order from the Syariah Court to amend his religious status was unconstitutional.
"The decision allowed Rieno to correct the religious status on his IC without needing a Syariah Court order," said Chin, the former Sabah Law Society president.
"This ruling could help other individuals in Sabah who face similar issues of incorrect religious status on their official documents.
"It sets a precedent that such matters, especially those involving individuals who have never professed the religion in question, should be handled by the civil courts rather than the Syariah Court," he said.
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Chin said the judgment emphasises the protection of fundamental liberties under the Federal Constitution, which could lead to greater ease in rectifying similar errors for others in the future.
On Friday, Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Datuk Zaleha Rose Pandin ruled that a letter from state Islamic authority Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah (JHEAINS) confirming that Rieno, 29, was not listed as a convert was sufficient for the NRD to remove "Islam" from his identity card.
She said that it was not necessary for Rieno to obtain an order from the Syariah Court when the matter was clearly within the jurisdiction of the civil court.
She said NRD should have made the amendment based on the letter from JHEAINS confirming that Rieno was not listed as a convert, nor was he within the definition of a practising Muslim under Section 2 of the Majlis Ugama Islam Sabah (MUIS) Enactment 2004.
