Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who allowed the declaration sought by Rosliza Ibrahim, said the appellant is an illegitimate child and that shariah law was not applicable to her.
However, the bench was divided on whether Islamic religious law could be enforced on Rosliza.
Tengku Maimun, Rohana Yusuf, Nallini Pathmanathan, Abdul Rahman Sebli, Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Rhodzariah Bujang were in the majority.
Azahar Mohamed and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim took the position that the civil court has to get an opinion from the relevant fatwa committee on her illegitimacy in Islamic law.
On the facts, all the judges held this was a case where Rosliza never left Islam.
The effect of today’s verdict is that a person could come to the civil court to determine whether he or she is or is not a Muslim from birth.
However, if it is a case of a Muslim who wants to leave Islam, that person has to go to the shariah court.
The state government and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) were respondents in the suit brought by Rosliza, while the federal government was brought in as a friend of the court to assist the judges.
Rosliza, who was born to a Muslim father but raised as a Buddhist by her mother, had taken the position that the Islamic laws of Selangor do not apply to her and that the shariah court has no jurisdiction over her.
She said it had been presumed that she had been born a Muslim, based on an assumption of a valid marriage between her parents and an assumption that her late mother had converted to Islam.
Rosliza said she had gone to the religious authorities in 10 other states and obtained confirmation that her parents did not have any records of her mother converting to Islam or that a Muslim marriage had taken place.
The High Court in Shah Alam dismissed her suit in April 2017 on grounds that the evidence she produced was insufficient and her remedy was the shariah court.
Lawyers Gopal Sri Ram, Aston Paiva and Yasmeen Soh represented Rosliza. State legal adviser Salim Soib, senior federal counsel Siti Fatimah Talib and state legal officer Muhammad Haziq Hashim appeared for the Selangor government.
Lawyers Abdul Rahim Sinwan, Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar and Azman Marsaleh represented MAIS while senior federal counsel Suzana Atan, Shamsul Bolhassan and K Kogilambigai appeared for Putrajaya.
Lawyer Mansoor Saat represented the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) while lawyer Philip Koh Tong Ngee held a watching brief for the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism.
Lawyer Low Wei Loke represented the Bar Council.