[ad_1]
PUTRAJAYA: The nine-member federal court will meet on December 16 to hear an appeal from a woman requesting a declaration that she is not Muslim.
Selangor State Legal Clerk Siti Fatimah Talib said the new date was set today after handling the case with Under Registrar Azniza Mohd Ali.
The state government and the Religious Council of Selangor are the defendants in the lawsuit filed by Rosliza Ibrahim, while the federal government is presented as a friend of the court to assist the judges in the case.
The hearing was canceled on Oct. 6 after a lawyer appearing at the council came into close contact with a minister who tested positive for Covid-19.
Rosliza, who was born to a Muslim father but was raised as a Buddhist by her Buddhist mother, has taken the position that the Islamic laws of Selangor do not apply to her and that the Islamic court has no jurisdiction over her.
She said that she had been presumed to have been born Muslim, based on the assumption of a valid marriage between her parents and the assumption that her late mother had converted to Islam.
Rosliza said that she had gone to religious authorities in 10 other states and had obtained confirmation that her parents had no record of her mother converting to Islam or that a Muslim marriage had taken place.
The Shah Alam High Court dismissed her claim in April 2017 on the grounds that the evidence she presented was insufficient and her remedy was the sharia court.
In 2018, the Court of Appeal upheld the Superior Court’s ruling.
Earlier this year, the Federal Court allowed Rosliza’s request for permission to appeal based on two legal issues.
It was about whether the civil court had the exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether or not a person is Muslim under the law, and whether any information on the identity card is conclusive proof that one is Muslim.
The legal and religious fraternities are closely following Rozliza’s case as it is an opportunity to revisit a 2007 case involving Lina Joy, a Muslim woman who sought, but was unable, to be allowed to change her religion. from Islam to Christianity.
The Federal Court had ruled that Lina must first obtain a certificate from the sharia court to leave the religion before submitting it to the Department of National Registration to have the word “Islam” removed from her identity document.
