Edmund Doudilim said the court, introduced by former chief justice of Malaysia Richard Malanjum to help rural folk, had been an immense help to those in the interior.
Apart from hearing other cases, he said, the presiding magistrate or judge could also conduct inquiries on those without proper birth documents.
“The home ministry’s directive, to me, is also tantamount to hijacking the state’s Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance 1966,” he told FMT.
He said Section 22 of the ordinance provides a clause that offers some leniency regarding late birth registrations, while Section 22(3) empowers a magistrate to certify late registrations after a reasonable inquiry.
“Sabah’s law should not be curtailed by the passing of a ministry’s policy,” he added. “There should be no further erosion of our state law.”
The mobile court outreach programme was started by Malanjum during his tenure as chief justice of Sabah and Sarawak to hear cases of late birth registrations, MyKad matters and small claims from people in remote areas.
Doudilim said Deputy Home Minister Azis Jamman should have challenged the move which he labelled as impractical.
“He is a Sabahan who is supposedly well aware of the dire predicaments faced by people in the interior. He should have objected to the new policy,” he said.
He also criticised Sabah federal ministers Liew Vui Keong and Darell Leiking for their silence on the matter.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the move to stop late birth registrations at state JPN offices was one of the measures recommended following reports of MyKads and birth certificates being illegally issued and sold to foreign nationals in Penang.
However, Doudilim said the Penang incident might have been exploited to justify the move.
“Now, applicants for late birth registrations must go to the JPN headquarters in Putrajaya to have their applications processed.
“Instead of solving the problems faced by the interior people of Sabah and Sarawak, the new directive will only complicate matters,” he said.
He spoke of an “obvious” lack of funds, adding that indigenous people in the rural areas do not have valid identification documents to facilitate their travel.
Given the reports of fake documents being issued in Sabah, he said, the JPN office in Putrajaya might also lack awareness of the actual situation.
He said this could lead to the issuance of MyKads to those who are not entitled to such documents.
Here, he said, the mobile court could help by weeding out inaccuracies and cases of unscrupulous applicants using late registration endorsements as supporting documents to obtain MyKads.
Doudilim said Muhyiddin should have issued a special directive to Sabah JPN officers to work with the mobile court services in addressing the problems on the ground.
“The participation of JPN officers would at least ensure that birth certificates or MyKads can be processed and issued with some degree of expediency once the magistrate validates their claims,” he said, urging the government to come up with a “more workable” policy for Sabah and Sarawak.