Gurdial Singh Nijar said the court process would take a long time and compound the distress of the children and families. Therefore, he said, the government should just accept the High Court ruling and implement it.

“Especially, since Parliament in 2001 amended the Federal Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on gender and declared this was to safeguard the rights of our women,” he told FMT in a text message.

Last week Judge Akhtar Tahir held that mothers were entitled to confer citizenship by operation of law in all processes, just like fathers.

Gurdial said the High Court had given its reason in summary and the attorney-general knew the grounds.

“There is no imperative to wait for two more court tiers,” he said, adding that parties had also made comprehensive submissions, both written and oral.

Gurdial’s response came after retired judge Gopal Sri Ram said the government might have something to complain about and that it would only be known if the appeal was heard in the Court of Appeal and finally, in the Federal Court.

Sri Ram said it was better for this matter to be raised in the apex court and have the High Court ruling affirmed.

However, Sri Ram had also said that the government could still withdraw its appeal after reading the written grounds which have yet to be made available by the trial judge.

On Monday, Attorney-General Idrus Harun told FMT that a notice of appeal had been filed.

However, NGO Family Frontiers and Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh have urged him to withdraw the appeal to ensure that injustice against Malaysian women is not perpetuated.