PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court here will hear on May 22 a woman’s bid to challenge a decision by the Court of Appeal reinstating her as a Muslim.
The woman’s lawyer, Surendra Ananth, told reporters that the hearing of her application for leave to appeal was fixed during a case management last week.
In the application, the 37-year-old woman wants the apex court to determine whether an “invalid” shariah court order can be challenged “collaterally” in the civil courts.
She also wants the Federal Court to rule on the applicability of Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution to her case. That provision states that the civil courts shall have no jurisdiction in shariah matters.
In a majority decision handed down on Jan 13, the Court of Appeal reinstated the woman as a Muslim.
Justices Yaacob Sam and Nazlan Ghazali ruled in favour of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais), while Justice Ravinthran Paramaguru dissented.
Yaacob and Nazlan held that civil courts were not empowered to hear cases involving the renunciation of Islam.
The woman had previously filed a suit at the Kuala Lumpur shariah court seeking a declaration that she was “no longer a Muslim” but this was dismissed.
She then sought to challenge the shariah court order in the civil courts.
Meanwhile, in his minority judgment, Ravinthran said the Selangor enactment applicable at the time clearly stated that a person could only convert to Islam after attaining the age of 18.
The woman, who was born in 1986 and originally professed the Hindu faith, was still a child when she was converted to Islam unilaterally by her mother.
She said the conversion took place in 1991 at the Selangor Islamic religious department’s (Jais) office while her parents were in the midst of a divorce, which was finalised the following year.
Her mother went on to marry a Muslim man in 1993, while her father died in an accident three years later.
The woman contended that despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and stepfather allowed her to continue leading her life as a Hindu.
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