PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has set Oct 25 to hear the appeals by the Association of Family Support and Welfare Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) and six Malaysian mothers against a ruling denying automatic citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian women and their foreign spouses.
Lawyer Abraham Au, representing Family Frontiers and the mothers, confirmed the hearing date, as did senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin, who is representing the government.
Liew told Bernama that the Federal Court registrar notified the hearing date via email on Aug 15 this year.
The court will hear the Family Frontier’s appeal along with four other appeals related to citizenship cases.
In September 2021, the High Court ruled in favour of Family Frontiers and six Malaysian mothers that the overseas-born children are entitled to Malaysian citizenship.
However, this decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 ruling on Aug 5, 2022.
On Dec 14, 2022, the Federal Court granted Family Frontiers leave to appeal the appellate court’s decision.
Family Frontiers and the six Malaysian mothers who are married to foreigners with children born outside the country, filed an originating summons at the High Court, seeking their children’s right to Malaysian citizenship.
They filed the suit against the Malaysian government, the Home Ministry, and the National Registration Department (NRD) director-general.
Meanwhile, the other citizenship cases involved four individuals namely Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed, Tan Soo Yin, Azimah Hamzah and Mohanasengri.
Tan was born in Johor to unknown biological parents and Azimah was born in Pahang before her Cambodian refugee parents became Malaysians.
Meanwhile, Mahisha was born in India to a Malaysian mother and father who is an Indian national, while Mohanasengri was born in Malaysia to a Malaysian father and a Singaporean mother.
