A three-member bench chaired by Justice Nazlan Ghazali said the word “parents” in the interpretation of “Muslims” under Section 2(1)(b) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam 2003 enactment applied to both a Muslim mother or father.
Under the state provision, a child is deemed a Muslim if either or both parents were a Muslim at the time of their birth.
In allowing the appeal by the Selangor Islamic religious council (Mais) and the national registration department (JPN), Nazlan said the sisters, aged 21 and 22, thereby followed the religion of their mother.
As such, he said, the civil court had no jurisdiction to determine the religious status of the sisters, who have a Muslim maternal grandmother.
Nazlan, who delivered the decision online yesterday, said Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution stipulates that the civil courts shall have no jurisdiction in respect of any matter within the jurisdiction of the shariah courts.
Justices Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin and Lim Hock Leng also heard the appeal.
Last year, the Shah Alam High Court declared the two sisters as being of the Hindu faith, with judicial commissioner Choong Yeow Choy ordering JPN to issue identity cards to the siblings to reflect their actual religious status.
The sisters, who are college students, had identified themselves as being of the Hindu faith when they applied for their MyKad with JPN.
Their Hindu faith was stated in their birth certificates, following their father’s religion. They also claimed to have been raised as Hindus. However, JPN insisted on issuing them with MyKads that stated they were Muslims.
JPN claimed the sisters were Muslims by operation of law even though they had never known or met their Muslim maternal grandmother.
Mais took the position that the civil court had no jurisdiction to determine their religious status as it was a case of renunciation that could only be decided in the shariah court.
The government and Mais also contended that the plaintiffs were born Muslims according to the lineage of their biological mother.
The undisputed facts in this case were that their mother was born out of wedlock from a relationship between the plaintiffs’ maternal biological grandmother, Safiah Othman, a Muslim, and a Hindu man.
Anonymised as AG, the mother of the sisters was, therefore, deemed an illegitimate child. AG later married TK in a Hindu religious ceremony, but their marriage was not registered.
In a split ruling in 2021, the Federal Court had ruled that a woman was free to practise Buddhism as she was born out of wedlock to a Muslim father and a Buddhist mother.
In a 7-2 ruling, the apex court granted the woman’s declaration that she was non-Muslim, that the Islamic laws of Selangor do not apply to her, and that the shariah court had no jurisdiction over her.
Gurdial Singh Nijar and Lim Sze Han appeared for the sisters, while senior federal counsel Sallehuddin Ali represented JPN.
Lawyers Kamaruzaman M Arif and Sofiah Omar represented Mais.