Putrajaya, Malaysia - The Federal Court here will deliver its decision as quickly as possible on the appeal by Lina Joy against the Appeals Court's dismissal of her application to delete the word "Islam" from her identity card.
Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, presiding together with Federal Court Judges Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff and Datuk Richard Malanjum said the court realised that all the parties involved in the case required the decision urgently from the court as the case was of public interest.
"We also realise that this matter is pertaining to the constitution and administrative law. We will do our best to give the decision as quickly as possible. We adjourn the case to a date to be fixed for the decision," said Justice Ahmad Fairuz.
Lina, 42, whose birth name is Azlina Jailani, is appealing against the Court of Appeal's dismissal of her application to delete the word "Islam" from her identity card.
On Sept 19, last year, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority decision, rejected Lina's appeal to reverse the High Court's decision disallowing her application to delete the word "Islam" from her identity card on the grounds that her renunciation of Islam was not confirmed by the Syariah Court or any other Islamic religious authority.
On April 23 2001, High Court had ruled that being a Muslim, Lina, could not renounce Islam and that the issue should be decided by the Syariah Court.
In the suit, Lina named the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Council, the Malaysian Government and the National Registration Department (NRD) Director-General Datuk Wan Ibrahim Wan Ahmad as respondents.
On Feb 2 1997, Lina had applied to the NRD to change her name on the grounds that she no longer professed Islam and had accepted the Christian faith.
The application was rejected by the NRD on Aug 11, 1997.
Her second application to the NRD to change her name to Lina Joy was approved and the NRD asked her to apply for a new IC.
Lina submitted the application for the new IC and in November 1999, she was issued a new IC with the name of Lina Joy and the word "Islam" was stated.
On March 11, 2000, Lina applied to the NRD to delete the word "Islam" from the new IC but her application was rejected on the grounds that she was required to produce a certificate or an order from the Syariah Court or any Islamic authority.
Earlier, Senior Federal Counsel Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, who represented the NRD and the Malaysian Government in replying to the submission by the Bar Council and several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which are holding watching briefs on the case, said that Lina remained a Muslim until her renunciation had been accepted or confirmed by the Islamic body, including the Syariah Court.
Umi Kalthum submitted that Lina could not invoke the provisions of the Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution to say that she was now an apostate and a Christian by religion without first settling the issue of renunciation of Islam in accordance with the Syariah laws as declared by the Syariah Court.
"The Federal Court, in Kamariah Ali & Ors versus the Kelantan State Government and one other, held that since the offences were committed by the appellant when they were still professing the Islamic religion, they were rightly prosecuted before the Syariah Court," she said.
Umi Kalthum submitted that unlike a non-Muslim, Lina, being a Muslim, was subject to the dual legal system practised in Malaysia, namely civil laws and the civil courts as well as the Syariah Courts and the Syariah laws.
"As a Muslim, bound by the Syariah laws, the appellant (Lina) cannot apostatise at will. The issue of renunciation, a matter pertaining to the 'akidah' (faith) of a Muslim transgressed into the realism of the Syariah law which needs serious consideration and proper interpretation of such laws. As such, only the Syariah court and/or bodies are qualified to make such determination," she said.
Pertaining to the issue of the right to profess and practice a religion of choice raised by the Bar Council and NGOs, Umi Kalthum submitted that the freedom of religion in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution did not include the right to renounce Islam at will because the finality of a Muslim's decision to convert out of Islam was subject to the laws of Malaysia including the Federal Constitution, within the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court.
She said as a Muslim in Malaysia, one was subject not only to the general laws but also those of a religious nature enacted by the respective legislatures pursuant to the Article 74(2) of the Federal Constitution.
"The recognition of Islamic laws as binding on the Muslims was made before the formation of Malaysia. It had always been the intention of framers of our Constitution that the Muslims in this country be governed by the Islamic personal and family laws," Umi Kalthum added.
Therefore, she contended that Article 11 of the Federal Constitution could not be interpreted to mean that the Muslim appellant could renounce the religion of Islam at will, without first having recourse to the Syariah Courts.
Meanwhile Lina's counsel, Datuk Dr Cyrus Das in his reply to the submissions by the three respondents, Bar Council and the NGOs, said the Federal Constitution specifically provided in Articles 8(2) and 12(1) that there should be no discrimination, inter alia, on the basis of religion.
He said the objective and purpose behind the Articles 8 and 12 was to create and guarantee equality of treatment for all Malaysian peoples regardless of race and religion.
"This is the uniqueness and richness of the Malaysian Constitutional experiment that the multi-racial and multi-religious people of Malaysia exist in harmony under the guarantees given by a single common document called the Federal Constitution," he said.