High Court dismisses woman’s bid to overturn Muslim status

SEREMBAN: The High Court here has dismissed a suit filed by a 47-year-old woman against the Malaysian government and two others seeking to nullify her conversion to Islam.

Apart from the government, the former kindergarten teacher named the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Negri Sembilan Islamic Council (Mains) as the second and third respondents, respectively.

Lawyer Danial Farhan Zainul Rijal, who represented Mains, said Judge Wan Fadhilah Nor Wan Idris delivered her decision during online proceedings.

“The court made its decision based on documents and statements from the applicant who had admitted to being Muslim in her identity card, marriage and divorce applications, thus showing that she was Muslim.

“The court also took into account the documentary record regarding the applicant’s conversion to Islam with her parents when she was four years old, including the applicant’s certificate of conversion to Islam, which shows that she had applied to convert to Islam through her parents,” he said.

Danial Farhan said the court also ordered the woman to pay RM4,000 in costs.

The court, he said, also ruled that the issue brought by the applicant could not be accepted as an ‘ab initio’ claim or an allegation that the individual in question had never embraced Islam.

“The judge also referred to the overall facts and stated that this case is under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court and not the Civil Court,” he added.

The plaintiff had filed an originating summons against the three in March 2023.

Through the originating summons, the woman sought for the NRD to amend and update her personal information records to indicate her non-Muslim religion in the registration system.

She also requested an immediate change of her Malay name to a non-Muslim female name.

The woman had claimed that she was converted from Hinduism to Islam by her father when she was only four years old.

In March the following year, the High Court allowed Mains’ application to strike out the originating summons filed by the woman.

However, the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, later reinstated her suit to allow for the merits of the case to be heard.

When contacted, the woman’s lawyer S. Karthigesan confirmed the court had dismissed his client’s suit.