KUALA LUMPUR: Stateless persons in Malaysia can still legally marry without having a Malaysian identity card (the blue IC, also known as MyKad), the High Court has ruled.
In a groundbreaking decision following a landmark case, the High Court said that Malaysian authorities can register such marriages without an IC.
The case, involving one Perak family, the Malay Mail reported, found that a stateless woman and her daughter could not register their marriages to Malaysians, causing three generations to be stateless.
The High Court in Taiping later ruled in favour of 46-year-old Kamaladevi Kanniappan, her two children, and her three grandchildren, declaring these three generations of stateless persons as Malaysians on May 20.
The High Court also said Kamaladevi and her daughter have the right to register their marriages with the National Registration Department (NRD).
Although Kamaladevi had Malaysian grandparents, her mother Letchimee only had a birth certificate and did not have a Malaysian identity card up to her death.
Because of this, she could not register her marriage to a Malaysian man, and all her three children — including Kamaladevi — became stateless.
The court clarified that Malaysia's laws do not require having an IC for a marriage to be registered.
Under the country's laws, children born in an unregistered marriage are considered illegitimate, and their citizenship status can only follow their mother's.
So even if they have a Malaysian father, they will not automatically be Malaysians and have to apply for citizenship (with no guarantees of approval).
The next generations all suffered the same fate because Kamaladevi and her daughter had the same problem: Kamaladevi's children and grandchildren are also stateless now.
Additionally, non-Muslim marriages (from March 1, 1982, onwards) must be solemnised and registered under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 to be valid in Malaysia.
A valid marriage between a stateless woman and a Malaysian man would mean their children are not illegitimate and can inherit the father's Malaysian citizenship.