Court ‘should have probed law’

BY SIM LEOI LEOI

Saturday December 31, 2005

PUTRAJAYA: The civil court which heard the case of Everest climber L/Kpl M. Moorthy should have examined whether the law stating that all matters relating to Islam should be handled by the Syariah court is constitutional.  

Human Rights Commission chairman Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said the civil court should not have avoided the issue by merely ruling that L/Kpl Moorthy’s conversion to Islam came under the jurisdiction of the Syariah court. 

“I think this is a constitutional issue. The individual has the right to choose his or her own religion. Once the person has embraced Islam, he has to act in accordance to the tenets of the religion. Otherwise, there is no meaning or commitment to his conversion. 

“Islam is a religion practised according to hukum syarak and the competent person to decide on Islamic matters is the Syariah court. 

“But in this case, the civil court should have considered the constitutionality of the amendment to the Federal Constitution, which was presented by the Government and passed by Parliament, and decide whether it is constitutional or not. Because in the matter of constitutionality, the civil court is competent,” he said here yesterday. 

Unfortunately, however, added Abu Talib, the court had chosen to refrain from doing so. 

“Moorthy’s widow should have sought a ruling on the constitutionality of the law,” he said, adding that even if the case could be heard in the civil court, it would have needed an expert well-versed in hukum syarak to give evidence. 

“The Federal Constitution has clearly stated that any case must be dealt with by a court of competent jurisdiction. You cannot have a judge who has not professed to Islam to determine what’s wrong or not wrong in the case of Moorthy,” Abu Talib said. 

He was commenting on a High Court ruling on Wednesday that it would not disturb the declaration that L/Kpl Moorthy, whose Muslim name was Mohammad Abdullah, was a Muslim because the matter was under the Syariah court’s jurisdiction. 

Moorthy’s widow S. Kaliammal, 30, had sought a declaration that her late husband was a Hindu who had practised the Hindu way of life and that any papers relating to his alleged conversion to Islam were null and void. 

She was involved in a tussle with the Federal Territory Religious Department over his body. Moorthy was buried according to Islamic rites on Wednesday. 

Various non-Islamic religious leaders had urged the Government to intervene in the issue.