Penang court rejects ‘Muslim’ woman’s bid to register marriage at JPN
Published on: Wednesday, March 20, 2024
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
The Penang High Court ruled that the application involved determining the validity of the applicant’s mother’s renunciation of Islam, which was within the purview of the shariah courts.
PETALING JAYA: The Penang High Court has dismissed a woman’s attempt to have the National Registration Department (JPN) register her marriage under civil law, holding that she could be considered “Muslim by law”.
Justice Anand Ponnudurai refused the 32-year-old’s judicial review application seeking an order to compel JPN to register her marriage to a non-Muslim man.
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“The court finds that the decision made by the state JPN (the first respondent) on Aug 10 last year was not irrational or unreasonable based on the available evidence before them,” he said.
Anand made no order as to costs.
The woman, identified only as ABC, had named the JPN, its Penang branch, the home ministry and the government as respondents.
Anand said the High Court was the wrong forum to decide on the religious status of ABC and her mother, who passed away in 2017.
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“I agree with the respondents’ submission of the net effect of this court granting ABC the application, which (is that) her late mother had renounced Islam.
“This court certainly does not have the jurisdiction to do so. This matter came under the purview of the shariah court,” he said in a 16-page judgment posted on the judiciary’s website yesterday.
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Anand delivered his oral decision last week.
He said the status and effect of a deed poll executed by ABC’s mother was not an issue that could not have been determined in the proceedings before him.
Therefore, the respondents could not be said to have acted illegally or irrationally, and their decision could not be said to be tainted with procedural impropriety, said Anand.
“As such, the applicant (ABC) could be considered a Muslim by law, and the state JPN would appear to have a basis not to register the marriage under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976,” he said, adding that the legislation only allows JPN to register marriages between non-Muslims.
Anand also noted that ABC had claimed never to have professed Islam and said she had been of the Hindu faith all her life.
However, JPN argued that ABC is a Muslim by law as her mother was a Muslim.
Anand also noted that ABC had only sought to quash JPN’s Aug 10 decision but did not ask for a declaration.
The judge said there was a difference between a person who contends she is not a Muslim ab initio (from the outset) as opposed to someone who is no longer a Muslim.
Anand held that the proper recourse for ABC would be to commence an action either by originating summons or writ seeking a declaration regarding her religious status.
According to the facts, ABC’s maternal grandparents were Muslims.
ABC contended that her late mother was not a Muslim at the time of her birth in 1991, having purported to renounce her faith in a deed poll signed in 1990 and by taking on a Hindu name.
However, JPN said it had no record of the deed poll.
ABC’s birth certificate also referred to her mother by her Muslim name.
In its affidavit in reply, JPN said ABC’s father had confirmed that his wife’s burial was done according to Muslim rites.
In her affidavit, however, ABC claimed that her father had lied.
Anand said these facts showed that there was a dispute over the mother’s religious status.
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