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PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has reserved its sentence in the case of a 38-year-old woman, who is the illegitimate daughter of a Muslim father and a Buddhist mother, who seeks to be declared non-Muslim.
“The court adjourns this matter for a decision on a date to be set later,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said on Wednesday (December 16).
Judge Tengku Maimun chaired a nine-member panel that heard Rosliza Ibrahim’s appeal against the judgments of the Shah Alam High Court and the Court of Appeal, which rejected her request to be declared non-Muslim.
Earlier in the submissions, Rosliza’s attorney, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, told the court that his client’s case was not one about leaving religion, but one in which she was never Muslim to begin with.
He said that Rosliza had never been a practicing Muslim and never belonged to the religion.
He also held that the High Court had erred in relying on the case of Lina Joy, a born Muslim who converted to Christianity, in making its decision in the Rosliza case.
“The appellant is entitled to a declaration (that she was never Muslim),” said Sri Ram.
However, the lawyer for the Islamic Religious Council of Selangor (Mais), Abdul Rahim Sinwan, disagreed.
“Our argument is that the appellant is Muslim. She was born Muslim and this is based on the documents when she applied for her identity card,” he said.
Mais is the second defendant in Rosliza’s appeal.
The other judges on the stand were the President of the Court of Appeals, Judge Rohana Yusuf, and the judges of the Federal Court, Judges Azahar Mohamed, P. Nallini, Abdul Rahman Sebli, Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Hasnah Datuk Mohammed Hashim, Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Rodzariah Bujang.
Rosliza, 38, filed the initial subpoena in 2015 for a statement that she was born out of wedlock to a Muslim father and his late Buddhist mother.
She named the Selangor state government and Mais as the first and second respondents respectively.
She claimed that she was not Muslim and that her late mother raised her as a Buddhist, so the Sharia courts had no jurisdiction over her.
On June 22, 2017, then-Shah Alam High Court Judicial Commissioner Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah dismissed Rosliza’s claim on the grounds that the evidence presented by Rosliza only showed that the marriage was not registered, adding that not registering a marriage was not proof. that there was no such marriage.
He said the evidence presented by Rosliza could not prove on a balance of probabilities that she was not a Muslim at birth and that the court held the view that she was born Muslim.
The court ruled that his case was under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court and not the civil High Court.
Rosliza’s appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeals on April 25, 2018.
On January 20, the Federal Court granted him permission to appeal the dismissal of his claim by the Superior Court and the Court of Appeals.
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