THE High Court in Kuala Lumpur has ruled that the civil court has no jurisdiction over matters involving persons seeking to renounce Islam, as this is the Shariah Court’s jurisdiction.

Judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid made the ruling on June 15 in an email after dismissing a legal suit filed by a 32-year-old woman requesting a judicial review to renounce Islam in favour of Buddhism.

In his written full grounds of judgment made available to the media today, Kamal said there have been many legal precedents concerning Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution by the courts over the decades that the civil courts shall have no jurisdiction in respect of any matter within the jurisdiction of the Shariah Courts.

He said the crux of the present case is the application by the plaintiff for judicial review of the Shariah Court’s decision, which had rejected her request to renounce Islam.

The judge said the Shariah Court had done nothing wrong and not acted ultra vires in making its decision.

“To me, it does matter what the decision was, but the most important issue is that the civil courts have no jurisdiction to hear matters within the jurisdiction of the Shariah Court, nor has it the power to review the Shariah Court’s decision in cases involving the renunciation of Islam,” he said.

The applicant, who was born to a Muslim convert father and a Muslim mother, cannot be named publicly due to a court order.

On March 4, she filed for judicial review in the civil High Court, naming the Shariah Court of Appeal, the Shariah High Court, the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council and the government of Malaysia as the four respondents.

The woman is seeking at least 12 court orders as part of her lawsuit, including declarations that the Shariah courts did not have the jurisdiction or power to declare that a person is no longer a Muslim.

She is also seeking a declaration from the civil High Court that she is no longer a Muslim and a declaration that she is entitled to practise Buddhism.

She is also asking the civil High Court to declare the decisions by Shariah High Court and Shariah Court of Appeal null and void. – Bernama, July 12, 2022.