The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and state muallaf registry are seeking to reinstate the conversion status of the three children at the Court of Appeal after the High Court struck down their earlier bid.
The three teenagers were aged between eight and 13 when their father converted them to Islam at a mosque in Batu Muda, Gombak on March 16, 2015. The following day, the father registered their conversion at the Hidayah Centre Foundation, an entity under the state government.
Their non-Muslim mother – who has since divorced the father – claimed she was not consulted on the children’s conversion to Islam. The children alleged that they did not agree to embrace Islam.
The mother and children subsequently filed a lawsuit against Mais, seeking to quash the conversion. The federal government was named as co-defendant in the suit.
High Court judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab had on Dec 28, 2020 ruled in favour of the mother and children’s application to quash the children’s conversion to Islam.
The court ruled that it was bound by the 2018 Federal Court decision in kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi’s children’s conversion case where it was held that the consent of both mother and father were needed.
Aggrieved over the High Court’s decision, Mais filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal.
During the appeal hearing today, Mais’ lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla informed the court that there would be a similar unilateral conversion case before the Federal Court tomorrow where the same questions of law would be raised.
In this case, the Federal Court will hear Mais’ bid to appeal to reinstate the conversion of five children – done by their father – into Islam.
“I humbly request for this hearing to be stood down until the Federal Court hears our leave application tomorrow,” he said.
Lawyer Sa’adiah Din, representing the mother and three children, said they had no objection to the hearing being adjourned until the Federal Court disposed of the other case.
Judge Suraya Othman then said the court would fix a new hearing date pending the Federal Court case. Other Court of Appeal judges who sat with her were Azizah Nawawi and Hashim Hamzah.
In the case tomorrow, Mais is seeking to appeal against a lower court ruling that granted a 33-year-old mother’s application to revoke the conversion of her five children to Islam, done unilaterally by her former husband.
The former husband converted the five children – aged between eight and 14 – in 2018, without the mother’s knowledge and consent.
She only knew about her children becoming Muslims after receiving a letter from Mais in 2019.
In allowing the mother’s application, High Court judge Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah had said Indira’s case ruling was binding on the lower courts and that the Selangor enactment clearly stated that both father and mother must consent to their children’s conversion.