KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has fixed March 13 next year to hear Sisters in Islam (SIS) Forum’s legal challenge against the fatwa (edict) which declared the organisation a ‘deviant group’.
Syarie lawyer Majdah Muda, who acted for Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (MAIS) which was named as one of the respondents, told reporters that judge Datuk Nordin Hassan had fixed the date in chambers today.
Counsel Farhan Haziq Mohamed who acted for SIS Forum was also present in the chambers.
Majdah said the court would hear the merits and issue on whether the civil court has jurisdiction to hear SIS Forum’s judicial review application against the fatwa.
On Sept 25, the Federal Court had through a consent order remitted the case to the High Court to determine the merit of the case as well as to decide on issues regarding jurisdiction.
Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, who led the seven-man bench, said all parties were free to submit their arguments on the issues of jurisdiction and merits at the High Court level to save time.
The judicial review application brought by SIS Forum, the group’s co-founder Zainah Mahfoozah Anwar, and Zaid was filed on Oct 31, 2014, for a court order to revoke the fatwa decision.
The fatwa stated that SIS Forum and any individual as well as groups which carried deviant ideologies of liberalism and pluralism as deviating from Islamic teachings.