Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said the party will continue to support any effort to resolve any anomalies in the law.

“The decision made yesterday has nothing to do with diminishing the Federal Court, nor does it undermine the power or status of the shariah courts or Islam itself.

“It is more an issue of technicality, relating to the fact that the state enactment in Kelantan overlaps with what is already established in civil (federal) law,” he told reporters at the MCA Chinese New Year open house at Wisma MCA here.

Mohamad’s comments came after opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin urged all stakeholders, regardless of partisanship, to discuss a constitutional amendment to strengthen the shariah legal system.

He stated that this was critical to upholding the rights of the Malays to profess and practise Islam as granted by the Federal Constitution.

Yesterday, the Federal Court struck down 16 provisions in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019 on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said the state assembly had no power to pass the provisions on several criminal offences as part of the enactment because the offences in question were already covered under federal law.

Mohamad said the party will ask Jakim, the religious affairs minister, and the law and institutional reform minister whether it was necessary to amend the constitution to prevent such occurrences from happening again, because it would tarnish the very system of shariah law and the judiciary.