Malaysian Gov T Fails To Stay Suit Seeking Automatic Citizenship For Overseas Born Children

---

 


The full hearing of a lawsuit seeking automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers and foreign fathers will proceed on Aug 24.
This followed on the heels of the Kuala Lumpur High Court earlier today denying the Malaysian government’s application to stay the suit pending a related appeal.
The government is appealing against the High Court’s May 6 decision to deny its application to strike out the legal action by six Malaysian mothers and rights group Family Frontiers.
The Court of Appeal at Putrajaya is set to hear the government’s appeal tomorrow morning via online Zoom proceedings.
Lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar, who acts for the Malaysian mothers and the non-governmental organisation (NGO), confirmed the outcome of the hearing of the government’s stay application before the High Court today.
“The AGC (Attorney-General’s Chambers) application was dismissed. (With) No order as to costs,” the legal practitioner told Malaysiakini this afternoon.
Gurdial explained that with the stay bid dismissed, the High Court is set to hear the merits of the lawsuit on Aug 24.
He added that the Court of Appeal is still set to hear the government’s striking-out appeal at 9am tomorrow morning.
The six mothers and the group are the seven plaintiffs while the government is the sole defendant in the suit.
In dismissing the striking-out bid with no order to costs, High Court judge Akhtar Tahir ruled that the legal action involves an important issue that is not frivolous as contended by the government.
The judge noted, among others, that the matter involves the issue of discrimination in the country's citizenship laws against Malaysian mothers on which the government needs to give justification during the full hearing of the suit.
Family Frontiers said the May 6 High Court decision was greeted with "a great sense of hope" by hundreds of Malaysian women awaiting citizenship for their children.
“It is very disheartening that the government would attempt to deprive these women of their avenue for justice and to prolong the hardships of the women and their non-citizen children.
“Even as the government continues to question the validity and sincerity of the case filed concerning citizenship laws, thousands of Malaysian women and their non-citizen children continue facing unequal access to fundamental rights each day.
“This is a missed opportunity for the government to rectify this discrimination and make amends to its women who have been negatively impacted for over 60 years by their inability to obtain citizenship for their children on an equal basis as Malaysian men,” the group said.
Through the legal action filed on Dec 18 last year, the seven plaintiffs had sought a court declaration that Malaysian women married to foreign spouses automatically get citizenship for their children born overseas.
This came after the government refused to budge on allowing the children of these mothers to be eligible for citizenship. - Mkini

---