Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat denied Mais’ leave to appeal after hearing submissions from its lawyer, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, and Toh Lee Khim, the lawyer for the children’s mother.

“This is our unanimous decision. The issue before us today has been settled in M Indira Gandhi’s case,” Tengku Maimum said, referring to the 2018 Federal Court ruling that held that the consent of both the mother and father was needed to convert their children.

The other judges who sat with Tengku Maimun were Vernon Ong and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

Tengku Maimun also pointed out that Section 117 of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Selangor) enactment clearly stated that both mother and father must agree to their children’s conversion.

The court awarded RM30,000 as costs to the mother.

Mais had sought to appeal against a lower court ruling that granted the 33-year-old mother’s application to revoke the conversion of her five children to Islam, carried out unilaterally by her former husband.

The former husband converted the five children, aged between eight and 14, in 2018 without her 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 the ruling in Indira Gandhi’s case was binding on the lower courts. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision last year.

Other unilateral conversion cases

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal stood down the hearing of another unilateral conversion case involving three children after Haniff told the court that Mais was waiting for today’s outcome in the Federal Court.

After Haniff said the same questions of law would be raised, the Court of Appeal fixed Feb 25 for the next case management of the case.

Other than Mais, the Federal Territories Islamic religious department’s (Jawi) registrar for new converts is appealing against a lower court ruling in revoking the conversion of two children, carried out unilaterally by their mother.

In this case, the mother, who embraced Islam in 2015, converted them at the Jawi office in May 2016.

The children’s father subsequently won his legal challenge to quash his children’s conversion in 2018. The decision was affirmed by the appeals court in October last year.

Aggrieved by the ruling, Jawi and the mother filed leave applications to reverse the lower courts’ ruling.

Their applications will be heard by the Federal Court on April 12.

We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.