MIC: Decision puts end to conflicting court orders
“Trap door” has been shut with Federal Court decision that civil courts are solely empowered to dissolve civil marriages and deal with custody of children, says MIC president.
\KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Court’s decision today regarding the dissolution of marriages and custody of children in cases where one spouse has converted to Islam and the other remains a non-Muslim, has solved the problem of conflicting court orders that arise from such issues.
MIC president Dr S. Subramaniam said with the ruling that the civil courts are solely empowered to dissolve civil marriages and deal with the custody, care and control of children born from such union, the “trap door” is shut.
“It is only the civil court that may deal with the issue of custody. This also puts to rest the problem of conflicting court orders and the police will now be able to enforce the civil court orders without reservation,” the Health Minister said in a statement here today.
The Federal Court today ruled that the civil court is the proper forum to decide on dissolution of marriages and custody of children in cases where one spouse has converted to Islam and the other remains a non-Muslim.
A five-man Federal Court chaired by Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif delivered the ruling in the case involving a Hindu clerk S. Deepa and her former husband, lorry driver Izwan Abdullah, who had embraced Islam and subsequently converted their two children to Islam, allegedly without Deepa’s approval.
The court granted custody of the eight-year-old son Nabil to the father and the 10-year-old daughter Nur Nabila to the mother.
Subramaniam said in almost all instances of dispute involving the converted spouse and the non-converting spouse, the former would have surreptitiously converted the children of the civil marriage.
“In doing so, the converted spouse would further seek custody of the children from the syariah courts,” he said.
He said the Federal Court’s decision is an important step towards protecting the rights of mothers.
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-BERNAMA