The Malaysian Insight

TOURISM and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Aziz today lauded the Federal Court ruling in nullifying the unilateral conversion of M. Indira Gandhi’s three children to Islam, saying it’s a victory for all Malaysians. 

The former de facto law minister said today’s decision showed that the cabinet was right in announcing in 2009 that children of an estranged couple should remain in the religion of the parents at the point of their marriage. 

“I have always maintained that parent means both father and mother, and it’s really wrong and stupid to interpret parent as either one. And when I was a law minister, I had always maintained that the father had no right to do what he did. 

“Islam is all about justice. When it is unjust it’s not Islamic, so, it’s a very good decision and from now onwards, there shouldn’t be any doubt in cases like this,” he told The Malaysian Insight today. 

The apex court’s five-judge bench, comprising Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum, Zainun Ali, Abu Samah Nordin and Ramly Ali, ruled that the unilateral conversion of the children to Islam was null and void. 

Zainun, who read out a summary of the judgment, said the conversion will also need the consent of both parents.

Nazri also expressed his happiness for Indira Gandhi, who had to endure a nine-year legal tussle. 

“It’s a victory for Islam and all Malaysians, we have been vindicated and the most important thing is the cabinet was right in making the decision. 

“But what a waste of time to wait until almost 10 years to have this decision. I  sympathise with Indira Gandhi, what she has gone through, but I’m very pleased and happy for her.”

MCA publicity spokesman Ti Lian Ker, meanwhile, said the Federal Court’s ruling should retroactively set a precedent  for all disputed cases.

“The conversion certificates of all minor children, whose faith was changed by one parent without informing the other, must now be dealt with as quashed or ‘null and void’ as so ordered by the apex court.”

Today’s apex court ruling overturned an appellate court 2-1 majority decision on December 30, 2015, to reinstate the conversion certificates of her three children, which had been nullified by the Ipoh High Court.

The appellate court had ruled that the civil High Court did not have jurisdiction to decide on the validity of the children’s conversion, which it said came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Shariah Court.

The children, two girls and a boy now aged 20, 19 and 9, were converted to Islam by their father, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, 47, formerly known as K. Pathmanathan, in April 2009 without Indira Gandhi’s consent, following Riduan’s conversion to Islam.

The children were then aged 12 and 11 years, and 11 months. – January 29, 2018.