PUTRAJAYA: A Muslim convert today failed in his attempt to obtain leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision dismissing his bid to renounce Islam and return to Christianity.
A three-member Federal Court bench led by Court of Appeal President Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, sitting with Federal Court judges Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Nordin Hassan, dismissed the 47-year-old man’s leave application.
Justice Abu Bakar, who delivered the decision, said the applicant’s judicial review seeking a declaration that he is no longer a Muslim falls under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court.
He said the questions of law raised by the applicant were not new or of constitutional importance, and the applicant failed to meet the threshold requirement under Section 96 (a) and (b) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
"As for the second question of law, we are of the view that the Federal Court’s decision in Soon Singh Bikar Singh v Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam Malaysia (Perkim) Kedah & Anor which was adopted in the Rosliza Ibrahim v Kerajaan Negeri Selangor & Anor case is still good law on the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court in respect of renunciation of Islam,” he said.
The court dismissed the application with no order as to costs.
The man married a Muslim woman in 2010, and the couple divorced five years later.
In 2016, he filed an application in the Syariah Court to renounce Islam, but the Syariah High Court dismissed his claim and ordered him to attend counselling sessions.
His subsequent appeal to the Syariah Court of Appeal was also rejected.
He then brought his case to the civil courts seeking to nullify the Syariah Court’s decision and to obtain a declaration that he is entitled to profess his original faith.
However, his judicial review was dismissed by the High Court in 2023, and his appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in May this year.
During today’s online proceedings, the man’s lawyer, Iqbal Harith Liang, raised two legal questions for the Federal Court’s determination.
When asked by Justice Abu Bakar whether his client was willing to go back to the Syariah Court to prove his case, Iqbal responded that he would not advise it as the court is now ‘functus officio’.
Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi, representing Federal Territory Syariah Appeals Court, the Federal Territory Syariah High Court and the Government of Malaysia, submitted that the questions of law posed were not novel.
Meanwhile, lawyer Kamaruzaman Arif, appearing for the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council, argued that the applicant could still return to the Syariah Court to pursue his case. - Bernama
