When contacted, Abraham Au, one of the lawyers representing Family Frontiers and the six Malaysian mothers seeking the appeal, said the court had set the new case management date as it wanted Mahisha Sulaiha Majeed’s citizenship case to be heard together with their case.
He also said the court brought forward the case management proceedings to today after a certificate of urgency was filed by them. The court had initially fixed Sept 28 for case management.
Au also said that his clients were seeking to expedite the hearing of their application for leave to appeal but the Attorney-General’s Chambers disagreed as the Court of Appeal had already stated that the status quo would be maintained for the overseas-born children of the six mothers pending disposal of their leave to appeal.
Federal counsel Sallehuddin Md Ali, representing the government, home ministry and the national registration department (JPN) director-general, and lawyer Loh Suk Hwa representing Family Frontiers and the mothers, attended the case management proceedings which was conducted online before Federal Court deputy registrar Rasidah Roslee.
Family Frontiers and the six mothers filed their application for leave to appeal on Aug 26 to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses were not entitled to Malaysian citizenship by operation of law.
On Aug 5, the appellate court, in a 2-1 majority decision, had allowed the government’s appeal to overturn the High Court’s landmark ruling allowing children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses to get Malaysian citizenship.
On the same day, the same appellate court panel also dismissed an appeal by 24-year-old Mahisha Sulaiha against a High Court decision in 2020 that rejected her suit which she filed to seek a declaration that she was entitled to be a Malaysian citizen.
In civil cases, litigants must first obtain leave before they can proceed with the appeal to the Federal Court.
Family Frontiers and the six mothers wanted a court order for all relevant government agencies, including the JPN, immigration department and Malaysian embassies, to issue documents relating to citizenship (including passports and identity cards) to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.