PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal has set August 28 to decide on a woman’s appeal to obtain leave to commence judicial review to challenge the shariah court’s decision to disallow her to renounce Islam.
A three-man bench comprising justices Datuk Azizah Nawawi, Datuk See Mee Chun, and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan set the date to deliver their decision after the woman’s lawyer, Fahri Azzat, and senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi completed making their submissions in the appeal today.
The 33-year-old woman, who was born to a Muslim convert father and a Muslim mother, is appealing against the high court’s June 15 ruling to dismiss a suit she had filed for leave to commence the judicial review.
In her judicial review filed in the civil high court on March 4 last year, the woman named the shariah court of appeal, the shariah high court, the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council, and the federal government as the four respondents.
She is seeking at least 12 court orders as part of her suit, including declarations that she is no longer a Muslim and that she is entitled to profess her religion of Confucianism and Buddhism.
She is also asking the civil high court to declare the decisions by the shariah high court and shariah court of appeal which rejected her bid to be recognised as no longer a Muslim, as illegal, unlawful, and void.
The shariah high court on July 27, 2020, dismissed the woman’s bid to be declared no longer a Muslim and ordered her to go through “istitabah” or repentance and Islamic classes and further akidah counselling. Shen then appealed to the shariah court of appeal, which also rejected her appeal on December 8, 2021.
Earlier, during the court proceeding, Fahri submitted that the judicial review filed by his client in the civil high court is not an application to renounce Islam but it is to review the shariah court’s decision in disallowing her to renounce Islam.
Fahri pleaded with the court to give his client a chance to be heard, saying that she would not have any other remedy left if the court refuses to give her leave for her judicial review to be heard on the merits.
Hanir, however, argued the court should not give leave to the woman to commence judicial review because the decisions made by the shariah high court and the shariah appeals court were not amenable to judicial review.
He said this is by virtue of Articles 121(1) and (1A) of the federal constitution which states that the civil courts have no jurisdiction in shariah matters.
He said the “law is clear” in stating that the civil courts did not have the power to review decisions made by the shariah courts, adding that if the shariah courts’ decisions could be reviewed in the civil courts on grounds of illegality or procedural impropriety, it would open the floodgates and would even result in child custody disputes subject to review. – Bernama, July 24, 2023
