The civil lawyer said Malaysia is a secular state and all citizens enjoyed equal protection under the Federal Constitution.
Shariah lawyer Mohd Rafie Mohd Syafie differed, saying enforcement officers were within the law when they knocked on the doors of couples allegedly involved in immoral activities.
Responding to reported cases of people being killed or injured while escaping khalwat raids, he said there was no reason for people to overreact when confronted by the religious authorities.
“Those found guilty or who plead guilty to khalwat are usually fined.”
A policeman was reported to have died after he fell from the fourth floor of an apartment in Cheras yesterday, in a bid to escape a raid by officers from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) at 3am.
In Puchong Perdana, another policeman was hurt after he tried to evade a raid by Jais yesterday.
Retired Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram said Malaysia is a secular state and this was affirmed by the Supreme Court bench, led by Lord President Salleh Abas in the case of Che Omar Che So v PP.
“Therefore, subsidiary law or power derived from such legislation must be tested against provisions of the Constitution.”
Otherwise, he said, there would be disproportionate, unfair, unconstitutional discrimination on the grounds of race and religion.
“How can it be when a non-Muslim does ‘something’, it is not an offence and yet if a Muslim does ‘something’, it becomes an offence. That cannot be correct.
“I would pay far greater respect to a learned man like Salleh than to the views of others who are less learned than him.”
Sri Ram said khalwat was a constitutional violation as such a raid was an invasion of privacy.
Lawyer G Subramaniam Nair said khalwat among Muslim civil servants was now seen as a misconduct under the government’s General Orders.
He said once a civil servant was found guilty by the shariah courts, the disciplinary board could take action against the person.
“In the past, action was only taken if one was guilty of a criminal offence, but now it has been extended to offences against the religion,” said the lawyer who handles dismissal cases among civil servants.
Subramaniam said policemen were federal officers and they should not be subjected to disciplinary action for offending a state shariah law.