Justice Has Zanah Mehat said MAIPs had made out a case under Order 15 Rule 6(2) of the Rules of Court 2012, read with Section 96 of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976.
“A reading of these two provisions would confer upon the applicant a legal right to intervene.
“We will therefore allow the appeal and set aside the order of the High Court. We make no order as to costs,” said Has Zanah, who sat with Justices See Mee Chun and Nazlan Ghazali.
Has Zanah said the bench did not need to dwell on the question of whether the children were Muslims as that was the subject matter of separate judicial review proceedings scheduled to be heard next month.
After the proceedings, MAIPs’ lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdullah told reporters that his client intends to file an application in the family court in Kuala Lumpur to vary a custody order given to Loh in March 2021.
“We will present our case before the court as to why the order should be varied,” he added.
The High Court had on June 15 last year dismissed MAIPs application to intervene, saying that the council had failed to show the court that it was “required” in the children’s lives.
“The children are not orphans. They do not belong to the community of the state (Perlis) and they are now living in Selangor.
“Their connection to Perlis is fleeting,” Justice Evrol Mariette Peters said in her ruling.
Earlier today, Haniff submitted to the Court of Appeal that MAIPs was an interested party because the children are Muslims under a Perlis enactment.
“The minor children need religious guidance because they are Muslims,” he said.
Haniff said MAIPs would also be able to provide zakat to Loh to financially support the children.
However, Loh’s lawyer A Srimurugan submitted that MAIPs could not be made party in marriage and divorce proceedings involving non-Muslims.
“Only Loh’s ex-husband (M Nagahswaran) could intervene to vary the custody order given to her,” he added.
Nagahswaran is said to have taken the children to Perlis, where he unilaterally converted them to Islam on July 7, 2020.
The 15-year-old twin girls and an 11-year-old son were placed under the care and control of preacher Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah.
On March 31, 2020 the High Court granted Loh full custody of the children.
Loh’s divorce from Nagahswaran was finalised on Sept 23, 2021.
Loh also took out a habeas corpus application in the High Court, which was allowed by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah in February last year. That decision paved the way for a reunion between the mother and her children.
In March 2022, Loh filed a judicial review application to challenge the children’s unilateral conversion.
In the same month, MAIPs applied to intervene in the custody proceedings.
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