PUTRAJAYA: A 37-year-old woman, who was converted to Islam when she was a child, lost her final appeal at the Federal Court, to overturn a Court of Appeal decision to reinstate her as a Muslim.
A three-judge panel consisting of Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, dismissed the woman’s appeal by a 2-1 majority decision.
Judges Abang Iskandar and Abu Bakar dismissed the woman’s appeal, while Justice Lim decided in favour of the woman.
In the majority decision delivered online, Justice Abang Iskandar said the woman’s case did not fall under the category that she was never a Muslim.
In allowing the woman’s appeal, Justice Lim, meanwhile, held that the woman is not a person professing the Islamic faith, as her unilateral conversion by her mother was illegal.
The woman said she was born a Hindu to non-Muslim parents, and she was still a child when she was converted to Islam by her mother in 1991. Her father passed away in 1996.
She added that her mother married a Muslim man after divorcing her father. She also said that, despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and her stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith which she was born into.
On Dec 12, 2013, the woman filed a summons at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court, for a declaration that she was no longer a Muslim. On July 20, 2017, the Syariah High Court dismissed her summons, and on Aug 1, 2017, the Syariah Court of Appeal also dismissed her appeal.
She then filed a lawsuit at the civil High Court seeking a declaration that she is not a person professing the religion of Islam, and named the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) and the Selangor government as respondents.
On Dec 21, 2021, the High Court in Shah Alam allowed the woman’s suit and declared that she is not a Muslim, but that decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Jan 13, last year, in a 2-1 majority decision, following the appeals by MAIS and the Selangor government.
The woman was granted leave to proceed with her appeal to the Federal Court on May 23, last year, with six legal questions for the court to determine.
Lawyers Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, A. Surendra Ananth and Wong Ming Yen represented the woman; while lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Majdah Muda acted for MAIS; and Selangor state legal adviser Datuk Salim Soib@Hamid and assistant state legal adviser Khairul Nizam Abu Bakar, appeared for the Selangor government.
