KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — The High Court is expected to finally deliver its decision next month in a Sarawakian native Christian’s bid to seek official recognition of her constitutional rights to freely practise her religion and to non-discrimination, more than three years after the matters were heard in court.
Lawyer Annou Xavier, who represents Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, today confirmed the decision date.
He told Malay Mail that the case “has now been fixed for decision on January 14, 2021, 10am at KL High Court and will be delivered by Datuk Norbee binti Ariffin”.
This would be the second time that the High Court delivers a decision in Jill Ireland’s case.
Jill Ireland had filed her lawsuit in August 2008 against the home minister and government of Malaysia, after the Home Ministry’s May 11, 2008 seizure of eight compact discs (CDs) — containing the word “Allah” — which were meant for her personal use at KLIA upon her return from Indonesia.
While the High Court had in July 2014 decided that the Home Ministry was wrong to seize the CDs and had ordered their return to Jill Ireland, the court did not address the constitutional points in the lawsuit.
The Court of Appeal in June 2015 directed the Home Ministry to return the CDs and also sent the constitutional issues back to the High Court to be heard, with Jill Ireland finally receiving her CDs in September 2015.
The constitutional issues in Jill Ireland’s case were then heard by then High Court judge Datuk Nor Bee Ariffin (now Court of Appeal judge) on October 19, 2017 and November 15, 2017.
The High Court had initially fixed March 22, 2018 as the decision date for the constitutional issues, but deferred it to August 13, 2018 as the Attorney General’s Chambers needed to get “fresh instructions” from the government.
The August 13, 2018 date was however subsequently converted to be a case management date following a change in government to enable parties to engage to seek a resolution for the matter, with the case subsequently undergoing multiple case management over the years before the scheduling of the new decision date in January 2021.
In this lawsuit, Jill Ireland is seeking several court orders, including a declaration that it is her constitutional right to have access to Christian publications in the exercise of her rights to practise religion and right to education, as provided for by the Federal Constitution’s Article 11 on the freedom of religion.
The Sarawakian native of the Melanau tribe is also seeking a court declaration that the Constitution’s Article 8 guarantees her equality before the law and protection from discrimination on grounds of religion in the administration of law ― specifically the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and the Customs Act 1967.
Jill Ireland is also asking the court to declare the Home Ministry’s December 5, 1986 circular to ban the word “Allah” in Christian publications as unconstitutional and unlawful, arguing among other things that the government has failed to prove such use was a threat to public order.
The government had used the 1986 circular to justify its 2008 seizure of Jill Ireland’s CDs.
Jill Ireland’s lawyers had in 2017 previously highlighted views from local and international experts that the Arabic word “Allah” for God is not used exclusively by Islam, and said that this word has been adopted into Malaysia’s national language and has long been used by the local Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christian community as shown by Malay translations of Christian publications dating back a few centuries.
