Insurance agent seeks court nullification of her unilateral conversion

 

A 40-year-old insurance agent has turned to the court to nullify her childhood unilateral conversion to Islam.

This is after the National Registration Department's (NRD) alleged refusal to allow her to drop the term Islam from her MyKad.

According to court documents sighted by Malaysiakini, the woman contended that her father unilaterally registered her as a Muslim when she was 10.

The court filing claimed that after having converted to Islam that year, her father registered her as a Muslim with a new name at the Selangor Islamic Religious Department.

The applicant claimed that her Buddhist mother never gave permission for her conversion. Her parents were divorced in 1993.

Born in Singapore in 1980, the woman, who now lives with her mother in Kuala Lumpur, said she never practised Islam and that she followed Buddhism.

She claimed that in August last year, an officer with the NRD office in Ipoh, Perak, refused to process her application to revert back to her original non-Muslim name and drop the word Islam in her identity card.

The officer had allegedly asked her to furnish an order from the Syariah Court before the NRD could process her application.

After the NRD purportedly refused to abide by a letter of demand issued by her lawyers, her legal team then filed the judicial review leave application with the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in November last year.

The NRD director-general, the government of Malaysia and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) were named as the three respondents in the legal action.

"The applicant (the insurance agent) at all material times has never followed and practised the religion of Islam.

"The applicant has never pronounced the 'dua kalimah syahadah' (an Islamic creed pronounced by non-Muslims when converting to Islam).

"The first respondent (NRD director-general) does not have any record to show that the applicant has embraced the religion of Islam upon reaching the age of 18," the woman contended.

She claimed that the NRD director-general or his officers' asking her to obtain an order from the Syariah Court before they could process her application was "unconstitutional, illegal, irrational and tainted by procedural impropriety".

She contended that her conversion is a nullity because the Federal Court in 2018 set a legal precedent that requires both parents to consent to convert their children below the age of 18.

Unilateral conversion of Indira Gandhi's children cited

The insurance agent was citing the landmark apex court decision on an appeal involving the unilateral conversion of the three children of kindergarten teacher M India Gandhi.

"It is repeated that the applicant's mother is still alive until now and has never given consent to the applicant's father to change the applicant's religion from Buddha (Buddhism) to Islam.

"The third respondent (Mais) has also never sought the permission of the applicant's mother before registering the applicant as a Muslim.

"Utilising the 'ratio decidendi' obtained from the case of Indira Gandhi, the applicant's Islamic conversion certificate issued by Mais at the request of the applicant's father but without the permission of the applicant's mother, when the applicant was 10-years-old, is null and void.

"No matter what, after the applicant reached the age of 18, the applicant is free to follow and practise her religion without influence from any party, and the applicant chose to follow and practice the religion of Buddha," she contended.

She also alleged that the actions of the NRD director-general and Mais had denied her fundamental right to freedom of religion, despite the right being guaranteed by the Malaysian government.

The judicial review leave application is backed with a supporting affidavit signed by the woman's 71-year-old mother.

"I confirm that, at all material times, I have never given permission to my former husband to change the applicant's religion from Buddha (Buddhism) to Islam.

"I confirm that the third respondent (Mais) did not seek my permission before registering the applicant as a Muslim.

"I confirm that upon reaching the age of 18, which was on Sept 22, 1998, until now, the applicant only followed and practised the religion of Buddha. We both live in the same home," her mother states in her affidavit.

The applicant is seeking multiple court declarations, among them that she is a follower and practitioner of the Buddhist faith.

She is seeking a mandamus order (judicial order for a person to perform a public or statutory duty) to order the NRD director-general to issue her a new MyKad bearing her original non-Muslim name and with the word Islam removed.

She is seeking a mandamus order for the government of Malaysia to ensure the NRD director-general abides by the court order.

She is also seeking a mandamus order for Mais to remove her name from the Muallaf (Muslim converts) Registry, as well as to cancel the Islamic conversion card issued on her name dated October 1990.

It is understood that her judicial review leave application is set for a decision by the High Court sometime later this month. - Mkini

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