KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today quashed the conversion certificates of two children who were unilaterally converted to Islam by their Muslim convert mother.
Judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi made the decision after allowing a judicial review filed by a Buddist father to nullify the conversion certificate of his 10-year old daughter and five-year old son by his ex-wife.
In her decision, Azizah ruled that the court was bound by a Federal Court decision that allowed an appeal by a kindergarten teacher, M. Indira Ghandi, who had challenged the conversion of her three children to Islam by her ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah.
She said it was not in dispute that the conversion was not made with the consent of both parents.
“Therefore, the court allows the judicial review application by the applicant and quash the conversion certificates of the two children,” the judge said making no order as to costs.
Azizah also ordered for the names of the children to be removed from the registration of the Federal Territories Registrar of Muallaf.
She also dismissed an application by lawyer Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah, who acted for the Federal Territories Registrar of Muallaf that was named as the second respondent in the application for a stay of the order pending a Court of Appeal’s decision.
Lawyers Rohani Ibrahim and Zulkifli Che Yong who represented the 42-year-old mother said they would file an appeal against today’s decision as soon as possible.
Rohani said an appeal was filed last Thursday on the Court of Appeal’s Sept 14 decision in giving full custody of the two children to their father.
Lawyer K. Shanmuga represented the 46-year-old businessman father who had on June 14, 2016, filed the application naming the director-general of the Federal Territories Religious Department, Federal Territories Registrar of Muallaf, director-general of the Education Ministry, Federal Government and the mother as respondents.
He had sought for an injunction to stop the respondents from registering or causing to be registered any change of the children’s religion to Islam.
He also sought an order to revoke any documents that were in the possession of the Registrar of Muallaf or Education Ministry and alternatively wanted a declaration that the certificates of conversions of the two children were null and void.
The two children, then aged eight and three, were converted to Islam on May 11, 2016, by their mother without the father’s knowledge and consent.
The children’s mother converted to Islam in December 2015.
The names of the parents and the children have been withheld by the court.