LFL adviser N Surendran, co-founder Latheefa Koya and executive director Zaid Malek held a closed-door meeting with JPN officials today to demand compliance with a Kuala Lumpur High Court order dated Dec 8, directing the home minister and JPN to allow the 17-year-old, referred to as CJ, to submit a MyKad application.
The lawyers said JPN previously refused to provide CJ, whom LFL represents, with the application form.
“We previously announced our intention to cite the home minister and the JPN director-general for contempt of court. But today, they accepted the (MyKad) application, and we will not be proceeding with the contempt proceedings previously indicated,” Surendran said at a press conference outside JPN’s headquarters.
CJ, a Form 5 student, lives with his widowed mother.
Yesterday, JPN denied refusing to facilitate CJ’s MyKad application, saying it remained committed to complying with the court order within 30 days but had yet to receive the required forms and checklist.
The department added that document verification was necessary, citing records of fraudulent documents submitted with CJ’s 2008 birth certificate.
On Dec 8, the High Court gave JPN and Saifuddin 30 days to issue a MyKad to the teenager, who recently sat for his Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.
In a Bernama report today, Saifuddin denied that JPN was deliberately delaying the implementation of the court order.
He criticised LFL, claiming that the group had created a misleading impression of JPN’s conduct, and said the lawyers’ assertion that JPN was complicating the procedure by requiring support from elected representatives was untrue.
Saifuddin said while JPN had no objection to complying with the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling that the teenager was eligible for citizenship under Article 14(1)(i) of the Federal Constitution, the process must begin with the issuance of a valid birth certificate as the original certificate was illegally obtained.
He said the case came to light when the teenager’s parents visited JPN to apply for a MyKad. Subsequent investigations revealed that the birth certificate was obtained illegally through a private hospital that had been blacklisted by JPN for its involvement in a syndicate producing false birth records.
“This case began when the parents came to JPN to apply for a MyKad. Based on the child’s physical appearance, it was clear that the child did not resemble the parents at all.
“The parents themselves admitted that the birth certificate was obtained illegally when the child was a baby.
“As the child grew older, the physical differences became more apparent. However, this admission was not mentioned by the lawyers,” he said after presenting a cheque for early schooling assistance in Alor Setar, Kedah, today.