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KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 ― The Court of Appeal today deferred hearing the appeal by a Muslim convert mother against a High Court’s 2018 decision to quash her unilateral conversion of her two children to Islam.
This was due to one of the judges on the Court of Appeal’s three-member bench voluntarily disclosing that he knows the Muslim convert mother and the Buddhist father in this case.
Just before the appeal hearing could start today, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera this morning put on record that he would like to recuse himself from hearing the court case as he knows both the parents in this case, as it would not be proper for him to hear the case.
Datuk Lau Bee Lan, the judge who was chairing the Court of Appeal panel, then fixed June 29 as the new hearing date for the appeal.
Datuk Mohd Sofian Abd Razak was the other Court of Appeal judge on the panel today.
Previously, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan had also recused herself from hearing this appeal on June 25, 2019 as she was involved in previous court matters related to the couple in this case.
In this case, the mother is challenging her Buddhist ex-husband’s successful bid at the High Court in 2018 to quash their two children’s unilateral conversion to Islam.
Also appealing in this case is the Federal Territories Registrar of Muslim Converts.
The High Court had on May 21, 2018 ordered for the names and images of the mother who had converted from Buddhism to Islam, and the Buddhist father, as well as their two children to not be published. The names of all four individuals are withheld.
Background of the case
On June 14, 2016, the Buddhist father had filed his court challenge through a judicial review application against five respondents, namely the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) director-general, the Federal Territories Registrar of Muslim Converts, the education ministry director-general, the government of Malaysia and the Muslim convert mother.
On October 16, 2018, the High Court had granted two of the court orders sought by the Buddhist father, including the quashing of the two children’s conversion of religion and quashing of the decision by both the Jawi director-general and the FT Registrar of Muslim converts to issue the “Kad Akuan Agama Islam” or certificates of conversion on May 11, 2016 to the two children.
The High Court also granted a mandamus order to compel both the Jawi director-general and the FT Registrar of Muslim converts to cancel the registration of the children as Muslim converts in their records or Muslim converts’ register.
The couple who were both initially Buddhists had married in a civil marriage in 2006, and had two children. The wife converted to Islam on December 29, 2015 while the couple was going through a divorce.
This court case was sparked off as a result of the conversion of the two children, then aged eight and three, to Islam on May 11, 2016 without the father’s knowledge and consent.
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