PUTRAJAYA: A four-year legal saga ended today for Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong as the court affirmed that her three children, who were unilaterally converted by their father, will remain non-Muslim.
The Federal Court chaired by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat today dismissed leave (permission) by the Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPs) and the Perlis government to review the lower court's decision in dismissing their case in January.
The top judge ruled that MAIPs argument had already been addressed in a landmark decision in 2018 regarding Indira Gandhi's unilaterally converted children.
"There is no reason for this court to revisit the issues raised in this case.
"The Federal Court judgment in Indira Gandhi is binding throughout the nation," she said.
Other members of the bench were Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.
This means that the Court of Appeal's decision in January that the unilateral conversion by Loh's husband M. Nagahswaran was illegal will be taken as the final decision.
On Jan 10, the appellate court allowed Loh's appeal against the High Court's decision which previously stated that there was no evidence indicating that her children had ceased practicing Islam while under her care.
Judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail said the High Court failed to address two pertinent issues in the judicial review proceedings which are whether unilateral conversion is lawful and whether Section 117b of the Perlis Enactment Four is unconstitutional as it contradicts Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution.
Loh, 37, had appealed against the decision of the High Court here on May 11, 2023, which dismissed her judicial review application to challenge the conversion of her three children to Islam by Nagahswaran without her consent.
The single mother, who filed the application on March 25, 2022, named the Perlis State Registrar of Converts, MAIPs, Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and the Perlis government as respondents.
Loh sought a declaration that her three children are Hindus and Nagahswaran did not have the legal capacity to allow the Perlis State Registrar of Converts to register their children as converts without her consent.
She also sought a declaration that her children, as underaged children, did not have the legal capacity to convert to Islam without her consent.
She applied for a certiorari order to revoke the declaration of the conversion to Islam dated July 7, 2020, issued by the Perlis Registrar of Converts in the name of her three children.