Caretaker Kelantan menteri besar Ahmad Yakob said the case challenged the power of the state legislative assembly to formulate the shariah criminal law under the State List, Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
“The state government on Thursday had instructed Jaheaik, as an interested party in safeguarding the implementation of Islamic law in Kelantan, particularly in relation to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019, to act as an intervener in the case.
“This is because the case will have a very big impact on the interests of Islam, the shariah law and the Kelantan government as a whole,” Bernama quoted him as saying in a statement.
Ahmad also called on Muslims and Muslim non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the state to play their respective roles in protecting the state’s shariah law.
Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman, filed a constitutional challenge regarding the 20 provisions contained in the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019 which they claimed were invalid as there were federal laws covering the same offences.
The duo contended that the power to legislate on criminal matters belonged exclusively to Parliament, with state assemblies only given the right to enact laws concerning the Islamic faith.
They went directly to the Federal Court as it has exclusive jurisdiction to decide such questions, based on Article 128(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution.
For such constitutional challenges under the Article 4(4) route, it can only start if a Federal Court judge grants leave or permission.
On Sept 30 last year, Federal Court judge Vernon Ong heard arguments by lawyers for the two women and the Kelantan government, before deciding on the same day to allow the two women to commence their court challenge.
Meanwhile, religious affairs minister Na’im Mokhtar, in a statement, called on state religious authorities, statutory bodies relating to Islam and religion-related NGOs to involve themselves in the proceedings of the court case.
He said they could be an intervener, or hold a watching brief or become amicus curiae (friend of the court).