PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has rescheduled to April 8 the hearing of the Perlis government’s review application to reinstate the religious status of Loh Siew Hong’s three children as Muslims.
Lawyer Daniel Farhan Zainul Rijal representing the Perlis government confirmed the new hearing date to Bernama, when contacted. The hearing date initially set on Feb 20 has been vacated.
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The new hearing date was fixed during a case management session held on Thursday (Feb 6) before Federal Court deputy registrar Wan Norazimin Kassim. Daniel as well as Loh’s lawyer A Srimurugan attended the case management.
The Perlis government filed the review application with the Federal Court on Oct 30 last year, requesting the court to set aside its earlier decision rejecting the leave to appeal applications filed by the state government and three other parties.
The state government contended that the previous ruling had severely compromised their right to be heard. They are seeking a rehearing of the leave to appeal the application.
The application to seek leave to appeal was dismissed on May 14 last year, preventing the applicants including the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council, the Perlis State Registrar of Converts, Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin from proceeding with their appeals.
Loh had filed an affidavit opposing the review application.
On Jan 10 last year, the Court of Appeal nullified Loh children’s conversion to Islam and declared them as Hindus. The decision overturned the 2023 High Court’s ruling that had initially dismissed Loh’s judicial review to annul her children’s conversion.
The 37-year-old single mother filed the judicial review on March 25, 2022, seeking a declaration that her three children are Hindus and asserting that her ex-husband, M Nagahswaran, who converted to Islam, lacked the legal capacity to register their children as converts without her consent.
The three children, who were initially placed under the care of the Social Welfare Department, were returned to Loh on February 21, 2022, after the High Court granted her habeas corpus application. - Bernama
