KOTA BARU: The Kelantan Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JAHEIK) will act as an interevener in the proceedings of a constitutional challenge filed by a lawyer and her daughter over the state's syariah law.
Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said the state government took the case seriously because it involved questioning the power of the state legislative assembly to formulate the syariah criminal law under the State List, Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
"On Aug 3, we (the state government) ordered JAHEIK, as an interested party in safeguarding the implementation of Islamic law in Kelantan, particularly in relation to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019, to act as an intervener in the case.
"This is because the case will have a very big impact on the interests of Islam, the Syariah Law and the state government as a whole," he said in a statement here tonight.
Ahmad called on Muslims and Muslim non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Kelantan to play their roles to protecting the state's syariah law.
Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman filed a constitutional challenge regarding the 20 provisions contained in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019 which they claimed are invalid as there are federal laws covering the same offences.
The duo contends that the power to legislate on criminal matters belongs exclusively to Parliament, with state assemblies only given the right to enact laws concerning the Islamic faith.
They went directly to the Federal Court as it has exclusive jurisdiction to decide such questions, based on Article 128(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution.
For such constitutional challenges under the Article 4(4) route, it can only start if a Federal Court judge grants leave or permission.
On Sept 30 last year, Federal Court judge Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat heard arguments by lawyers for the two women and the Kelantan government, before deciding on the same day to allow the two women to commence their court challenge.