Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - The High Court here today postponed to March 8 the hearing of an application by a Muslim convert to abandon the religion.
Justice Datuk Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim deferred the hearing to enable the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council that the applicant, Siti Fatimah Rajamanickam, 36, named as respondent, to reply to her affidavit-in-reply.
According to Bernama, Siti Fatimah said in her affidavit-in-reply dated last Nov 6 that the council's application to have her's struck out because civil court did not have jurisdiction, was defective and should be rejected with cost as it did not state the subsection under Order 18 Rule 19 of the High Court Rules 1980 that was used.
Siti Fatimah who was a Hindu, filed a statement of claim on Oct 1, 2004, to renounce Islam and to have her Muslim name be replaced with Vijaya Letchumy a/p Rajamanickam.
She sought a declaration that she had constitutional right guaranteed under the provisions of Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution to renounce Islam.
She also sought a declaration that she did not have obligation to apply to the Syariah Court or other authority bodies to renounce Islam based on the same Article.
She sought another declaration that the need to apply to the Federal Territories Syariah Court before renouncing Islam was inconsistent with Articles 5(1), 8(1) and 74 of the Federal Constitution.