THE Federal Court has set October 13 to hear an appeal by a 37-year-old woman to overturn a Court of Appeal decision in reinstating her as Muslim.

Lawyer A. Surendra Ananth, representing the woman, confirmed to Bernama the date of the appeal hearing following a case management held on Monday.

On May 22 this year, the woman was given leave to proceed with her appeal at the Federal Court with six legal questions.

On January 13 this year, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, allowed appeals brought by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council and Selangor government to reinstate the woman as Muslim. 

On December 21, 2021, the Shah Alam High Court allowed the woman’s suit and declared she is not Muslim.

In her originating summons, the woman, who was born Hindu to a Hindu father and Buddhist mother, said she was turning five years old when she was unilaterally converted to Islam by her mother in 1991 in the middle of her parents’ divorce. The conversion took place at the Selangor Islamic Religious Department office.

Her mother married a Muslim man in 1993 and her father died in 1996.

The woman said despite her conversion to Islam, her mother and stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith. She said she never professed to be Muslim.

On December 12, 2013, the woman filed a summons at the Kuala Lumpur Shariah High Court for a declaration she was no longer a Muslim. On July 20, 2017, the court dismissed her summons and the Shariah Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on August 1, 2017, prompting her to file a suit in the civil High Court.

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who delivered the Court of Appeal majority decision, said the Shariah High Court and Shariah Court of Appeal had already ruled the woman is still Muslim, which made it a renunciation case that falls under the Shariah Courts’ jurisdiction.

He said a judicial determination by the Shariah Court that a person is still Muslim, like in the defendant’s case, must necessarily mean she is Muslim and not someone who was never Muslim. – Bernama, July 26, 2023.