KUALA LUMPUR – Single mother Loh Siew Hong will find out in 10 weeks’ time if her judicial review application to quash the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam by her ex-husband is allowed by the court.
This is after the high court here fixed August 1 for the decision of her leave application, in a proceeding held via Zoom today.
Loh’s lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind said the Attorney-General's Chambers had no objection to Loh’s leave application.
“However, the respondents’ lawyers did (object),” he told The Vibes, adding that a full statement on the matter will be issued to the press later.
Loh had initially filed an application for a judicial review on March 25 to quash her children’s unilateral conversion and is seeking a declaration that a Perlis enactment allowing for such conversions of minors is null and void.
It is understood the Perlis Registrar of Muallaf, the Perlis Council of Islam and Malay Customs, Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, and the Perlis government are named as respondents.
According to a previous court filing, Loh is also seeking the court to declare that her ex-husband Nagashwaran Muniandy, who has since converted himself and subsequently the couple’s three children to Islam, was legally unfit to unilaterally make the decision in 2020.
She also wants a declaration that her 10-year-old son and 14-year-old twin daughters are still Hindus and not Muslims, as they were legally incapable of embracing Islam without Loh’s consent.
On February 21, Loh was granted a writ of habeas corpus by the high court here against the unlawful detention of her three children by her ex-husband.
Loh had been refused permission to meet with her children, whom she had been trying to locate for the past three years after having lost contact while undergoing treatment for injuries purportedly stemming from an abusive marriage with Nagashwaran.
It was during this period that Nagashwaran was reported to have converted the children to Islam.
Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, when delivering his judgment in February, agreed that the respondents in this case had gone against court orders issued in 2019 and 2021 that granted the single mother full custody of the children. - The Vibes, May 17, 2022
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