Teen S Religious Status Nrd Needs More Time Court Postpones Hearing

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The National Registration Department (NRD) needed more time to prepare affidavits and written submissions to counter a legal action seeking to uphold a 17-year-old boy’s right to be a Buddhist despite being born to a Muslim father.
As a result, the Kuching High Court postponed the initially-scheduled hearing of the non-Muslim mother’s lawsuit seeking to affirm her right to amend her son’s religious particulars in his birth documentation issued by NRD.
When contacted by Malaysiakini, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan confirmed the civil court allowed the postponement of hearing.
Shamsul, who is from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) that represented the NRD and the federal government targeted by the mother’s originating summons, said the NRD required more time to complete the court filings.
When reached out by Malaysiakini, the 52-year-old mother’s counsel Clarice Chan confirmed that Kuching High Court judge Zaleha Rose Pandin allowed the deferment of hearing.
“The NRD requested more time. Despite the plaintiff indicating they are ready to proceed, with submissions having been filed and served, the court granted time to NRD to file their affidavits and submissions.
“The next hearing date is Oct 11,” the counsel said.
Chan noted that the AGC representative informed the court that they had just made a request for a report from NRD at the end of August, around the time when the lawsuit’s papers were served on the respondents.
Life-changing decision
On Thursday last week, Malaysiakini reported that the 17-year-old Sabah-born teen now residing in Sarawak contended that his Muslim father has no objections to him being a Buddhist.
Set to turn 18 next month, the boy made the declaration in his affidavit to support his Buddhist mother’s legal challenge against the NRD’s alleged delay in changing his religious status on his MyKad.
“I was born on Oct 18, 2005. I understand my parents are divorced,” he said, explaining that he had just completed his schooling at a Chinese vernacular school in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
“I am a Buddhist. During my schooling years, I have not taken any Islamic religious classes. I have not practised Islam in my life,” he said, stating that his friends knew him by his Chinese name.
“I have never professed or practised any other religion in my life. My father has not objected to me being a Buddhist. I want to be identified as a non-Muslim,” the teen emphasised in the affidavit affirmed on Aug 9.
Last month before the Kuching High Court, the teen’s mother filed the originating summons against the Malaysian Births, Deaths and Adoptions director; the Sarawak Regional Registrar of Births and Deaths; the Identity Card Division director; the NRD director-general; NRD; and the federal government, as the first to sixth defendants.
The mother is seeking a declaration among others that she has the right to determine the religion and upbringing of her son, who has a Muslim name on his MyKad.
The plaintiff seeks a civil court order to compel the first, second and third defendants to record changes in her son’s MyKad in relation to religion.
‘Raised as a Buddist’
According to her affidavit in support, she and her then-husband had married under Sabah’s Islamic Family Law Enactment 1992 on Aug 3, 1999, with their son being born later on Aug 18, 2005.
Reiterating that she was a practising Buddhist at the time, she said the couple divorced on Jan 27, 2010, pursuant to the Federal Territory’s Islamic Family Law Act 1984.
She said that she obtained sole care and custody of their son, who was raised as a Buddhist since birth, and that her former husband, who is a Muslim, has since remarried and now has a separate family.
The mother, however, claimed that problems began on July 5 this year when she and her lawyers applied to the Sarawak NRD to change the details in her son’s identity card registers.
The applicant claimed that a woman personnel at the state government department’s counter refused to accept the application and that the latter gave a separate set of forms for the former to fill up.
The mother claimed that she had then submitted the application again on July 18 with supporting documents from her former husband as well as their son, which was accepted by the department.
She alleged that following her lawyers’ letter to the state NRD, the department replied via a letter dated July 31 that neither granted nor rejected the application and that it had instead asked her to fill out even more forms.
The mother pointed out that the forms are repetitive as they are in essence identical - especially the second and third forms - save for the provisions of the relevant ordinance.
She contended that as a Malaysian, she is entitled to correct the details on her son’s identity card in the relevant register in any part of the country.
“The child has never attended a religious class in school. He has not practised or professed the religion of Islam at all,” she contended.
The mother claimed that her son is known to his friends, family, teachers and community by his Chinese name and that she and her son attend a Buddhist society in Kuching. - Mkini

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