A five-member Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Maarop today allowed the application and tentatively fixed a two-day appeal hearing from July 23.
Others on the bench were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum, and justices Azahar Mohamed, Zaharah Ibrahim and Aziah Ali.
Federal counsel Suzana Atan made the application following the change in federal government and the appointment of Muhyiddin Yassin as home minister on May 14.
On Sept 11 last year, the Federal Court allowed leave applications by three sets of parents who wanted their leave applications to be heard on the position of stateless children.
The fundamental question before the apex court was whether blood or lineage is a requirement under the Federal Constitution in determining the citizenship of a child.
In all three cases, the Court of Appeal rejected the citizenship applications because the mother was a foreigner even though the children were born in Malaysia.
In the fourth case, a Court of Appeal bench ordered the government to issue citizenship to a child born to a Malaysian father and a mother from Papua New Guinea.
However, the government is appealing against that decision.
In the fifth case, the High Court in Shah Alam referred the matter straight to the Federal Court as constitutional issues were involved.
In this case, the biological parents were unknown but the child was adopted by Malaysian citizens.
The National Registration Department (NRD) refused to grant citizenship as the birth certificate stated that the child was not Malaysian.
Last year, the court allowed an application by lawyers to disallow the media from revealing the identities of the appellants, their parents or adoptive parents.
Lawyer Gopal Sri Ram, who is representing the parents of two adopted children, told reporters that his clients had written to the previous home minister asking that citizenship be given without a court battle. However, this was rejected.
“We will be making a representation to the newly elected people-friendly government and will write to the new home minister,” he said.
Sri Ram added that Muhyiddin was a reasonable man with experience in civil administration, at both the state and federal levels.
“We are confident of a positive outcome from Muhyiddin,” he said.
Lawyers Cyrus Das and Ranee Sreedharan appeared for another three parents while Shamsul Bolhassan assisted Suzana.