PUTRAJAYA, Oct 23 — The Federal Court has set Jan 6 next year to hear a 37-year-old woman’s application to review a prior ruling that affirmed her religious status as a Muslim.
Lawyer A. Surendra Ananth representing the woman, and lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla representing the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) confirmed the hearing date to Bernama, when contacted.
In August, the woman filed her application in an attempt to overturn a 2-1 majority Federal Court decision made on May 3, which dismissed her appeal.
The woman contended that the majority ruling was per incuriam, which means that a previous court judgment had disregarded relevant statutory provisions or binding court decisions. She wants the Federal Court to rehear her appeal.
The woman further claimed that the decision was made beyond the court’s jurisdiction and violated the rules of natural justice, leading to a serious miscarriage of justice.
In its decision on May 3, the Federal Court upheld a ruling from the appellate court, reinstating the woman’s status as a Muslim.
Born in Selangor to a Hindu father and a Buddhist mother, the woman claimed to have been converted to Islam by her mother in 1991 at the age of four, without her father’s consent.
Despite this, she continued to practice Hinduism, the faith she was born into, as permitted by her mother and her stepfather. Her mother married a Muslim man after her parents divorced.
In 2013, the woman filed a summons at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court seeking a declaration that she was no longer a Muslim but her request was dismissed on July 20, 2017.
The Shariah Court of Appeal also dismissed her appeal on Aug 1, 2017.
She pursued a civil lawsuit and won a declaration of her non-Muslim status in 2012 at the High Court in Shah Alam.
However, the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January, last year, reinstating her status as a Muslim after appeals from MAIS and the Selangor state government. — Bernama
