One of the affected cases is a challenge brought by a civil society representing a group of Malaysian mothers to a Court of Appeal ruling handed down two years ago denying their overseas-born children automatic citizenship.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired a five-member bench, fixed Jan 27 for the government and lawyers appearing for aggrieved parties to report to the court the progress of negotiations aimed at resolving the cases.
“Our hope is that you can sit down and resolve the matter,” the top judge said.
Also on the panel were Justices Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, Nallini Pathmanathan, Nordin Hassan and Hanipah Farikullah.
At the outset of the hearing, lawyers for the appellants told the bench that the amendments to citizenship laws passed by Parliament earlier this year would not impact their respective cases as they only operated prospectively.
In September 2021, Family Frontiers and six mothers won their cases after the High Court decided that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers were entitled to Malaysian citizenship automatically.
However, in August the following year, the Court of Appeal overturned that High Court decision. In December 2022, the Federal Court granted Family Frontiers leave to pursue its appeal.
Today, lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar said the six mothers were able to confer citizenship on their children by operation of law but the position of several others represented by the civil society remains uncertain.
“The amendments apply to future cases, and Family Frontiers is representing a large number of people. It is still a live issue and we want the appeal to proceed to restore the High Court ruling,” he said.
One of the questions for the apex court to determine is whether the term “father” should be read to include mothers following a 2001 amendment to Article 8(2) of the constitution which prohibits gender discrimination.
Lawyer Cyrus Das, appearing for Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed, said his client has been granted citizenship by way of naturalisation but would be unable to pass that right onto her two minor children.
“Her children must also be given citizenship failing which we would want to proceed with the appeal,” he said.
Mahisha was born in India to her Malaysian mother and Indian-national father.
Tan Soo Yin, 41, and Azimah Hamzah, 38, both classified as “stateless” persons are also appealing to be granted citizenship by operation of law.
Raymond Mah and Gurdial, representing Tan and Azimah respectively, told the bench their clients have filed applications for citizenship.
They said the Federal Constitution allows citizenship to be conferred on stateless persons provided they can show they were not born in another country.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said Parliament was told during the debate of the amendment bill that 19,370 of the 32,153 applications received are presently being processed.
“The government is committed to expediting the applications,” he said.
Gurdial described the government’s response as “positive” but said it was insufficient to address the issue.
Das proposed that the court adjourn the appeals for one month to allow citizenship to be granted to the applicants.