PETALING JAYA: Single mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children will remain non-Muslims after the Federal Court denied the appeal leave application to reinstate the children’s unilateral conversion back in 2020.
According to Malaysiakini, Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat who headed a three-person bench unanimously denied the appeal leave application made by the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Maips) and three others to reinstate the children’s unilateral conversion.
The other appellants were the Perlis state government, Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, and the Perlis State Registrar of Converts.
In reading out the ruling on behalf of fellow bench member judges Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, Tengku Maimun said that Maips and the other appellants were attempting to revisit the landmark 2018 Federal Court ruling on Indira Gandhi’s unilaterally converted children.
READ MORE: July 31 case management of Loh’s appeal over her kids’ conversion to Islam
In the 2018 ruling, the apex court ruled that the conversion of a child to Islam requires the consent of both parents.
Tengku Maimun reportedly said the appellants failed to show there are novel issues of law that require further ventilation before the apex court.
She then dismissed the leave application with no order as to costs.
The decision comes after the Court of Appeal allowed Loh’s appeal to nullify the unilateral conversion of her 15-year-old twin daughters and her 12-year-old son by their Muslim convert father Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy on January 10.
The 36-year-old mother had appealed against the High Court’s decision on May 11, last year to dismiss her judicial review application to challenge the conversion of her three children to Islam by her Muslim convert ex-husband without her consent.
ALSO READ: Single mom appeals against court’s decision in rejecting her bid to quash kids’ conversion
Loh filed the application on March 25 last year, naming the Perlis State Registrar of Converts, Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council, Dr Mohd Asri and the Perlis state government as respondents.
The single mother is seeking a declaration that her three children are Hindus and that her ex-husband, M. Nagahswaran, did not have the legal capacity to allow the Perlis State Registrar of Converts to register their children as converts without her consent.
The woman also sought a declaration that her children, as children, do not have the legal capacity to convert to Islam without her consent and also seeking a certiorari order to revoke the Declaration of Conversion to Islam, dated July 7, 2020, issued by the Registrar of Converts of Perlis in the name of her three children.
