AFTER more than a decade, the Kuala Lumpur High Court will tomorrow deliver its verdict in the Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill judicial review application on the use of the word “Allah”.

Jill, a Sarawakian Christian is seeking official recognition of her constitutional rights to practise her religion and non-discrimination.

A court official told The Malaysian Insight a video link room is being prepared for the case tomorrow due to the high number of requests from media organisations to cover the proceedings.

Jill’s fight began in May 2008 when Customs officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) seized eight CDs containing the word “Allah” on on her return from Indonesia.

She filed a suit in August 2008 seeking an order for certiorari to quash the decision of the Home Ministry to confiscate and seize the publications.

In the suit, Jill also sought several declarations from the courts pursuant to Article 11 and Article 8 of the federal constitution.

On the basis of freedom of religion under Article 11, she sought a declaration that it was her constitutional right to have access to Christian publications in the exercise of her rights to practise religion and right to education.

She is also seeking a declaration under Article 8, which guarantees her equality before the law and protection from discrimination on grounds of religion in the administration of law, specifically the Printing Press and Publication Act 1984 and the Customs Act 1967.

Jill also wants the court to declare the Home Ministry’s December 1986 circular to ban the word “Allah” in Christian publications as unconstitutional and unlawful as they have failed to prove that such use was a threat to public order.

In 2014, the high court ruled in her favour and found that the Home Ministry was wrong to seize the CDs.

Judge Zaleha Yusof ordered the ministry to return all eight CDs and to pay RM5,000 in costs. The judge, however, did not address the constitutional points raised in the judicial review.

The government appealed against the decision and obtained a stay to retain the CDs on grounds of public interest.

On June 23, 2015, a three-man Court of Appeal bench chaired by Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat (now Chief Justice of Malaysia) upheld the high court’s ruling and ordered the CDs seized in 2008 be returned to Jill, citing that provisions in the Printing Presses and Publications Act were not followed.

The bench also ordered that a new high court judge hear her application on whether she had the right to use the word “Allah” in her religious practices.

In 2017, high court judge Nor Bee Ariffin was appointed to hear the constitutional issues addressed in Jill’s judicial review application.

The court was supposed to deliver its verdict on March 22, 2018 but deferred to August 13, 2018 as the Attorney-General’s Chambers needed to get “fresh instructions” from the government.

The date in August was subsequently converted to be a case management following a change in government after Pakatan Harapan won federal power in the 14th general election.

Jill and the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Church in Sabah then wrote to the PH government, seeking an out-of-court settlement.

A five-member committee led by then home minister Muhyiddin Yassin was to have looked into the matter along with then de facto religious affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa and ministers Liew Vui Keong, Darell Leiking and Baru Bian, representing Sabah and Sarawak.

When PH collapsed in late February 2020, and Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over the reins of power, the matter was referred to a deputy minister from PN to have it resolved amicably but there was no resolution.

Since the matter was first heard by Nor Bee, who has since been promoted to the Court of Appeal, the delivery of the verdict has been postponed 14 times.

The matter was also adjourned 12 times to facilitate an out-of-court settlement on the use of the word “Allah” for Sabah and Sarawak folk and in publication materials.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court is set to deliver its verdict on the case at 10am tomorrow. – March 9, 2021.