Apex court grants leave to appeal in equal citizenship case

Family Support & Welfare Selangor & Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) and six Malaysian mothers have obtained leave to proceed with their appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling denying automatic citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian women with foreign spouses.

A three-man Federal Court panel led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim also granted leave for an appeal application brought by Indian-born Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed, who is also seeking to be recognised as a Malaysian citizen.

This was after senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin and senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi, appearing for the government in the case of Family Frontiers and Mahisha respectively, informed the court that they had no objection to the applications.

Abang Iskandar who sat with Federal Court judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Mary Lim Thiam Suan allowed the leave applications with three questions of law to be deliberated and decided by the Federal Court for both cases.

Meanwhile, the court disallowed the government's application to include three other legal questions, saying the government was not an aggrieved party.
 
In civil cases, litigants must obtain leave before they can proceed with appeals to the Federal Court.

Among the questions was whether a person born outside the federation to a Malaysian mother is a citizen of Malaysia by operation of law pursuant to Article 14(1)(b) read with Part II Section 1(b) of the Second Scheduled of the Federal Constitution.

On Aug 5, the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 majority decision overturned a High Court decision that children born overseas to Malaysian women with foreign spouses are entitled to automatic Malaysian citizenship.

The Court of Appeal had allowed the appeal by the government, home ministry and National Registration Department (JPN) director-general to set aside the Sept 9, 2021 decision.

Family Frontiers and the six women who are married to foreigners filed an originating summons in the High Court seeking for their overseas-born children to have the right to become Malaysian citizens.
 
They also sought a court order for all relevant government agencies, including JPN, the immigration department and Malaysian embassies, to issue documents relating to citizenship, including passports and identity cards, to children born abroad to Malaysian women with foreign spouses.

In Mahisha's case, the Court of Appeal on the same day dismissed her appeal against a High Court decision in 2020 rejecting the lawsuit she had filed seeking a declaration that she is entitled to be a Malaysian citizen.

Mahisha, 25, who was born to a Malaysian mother and Indian national father in India, filed her suit via an originating summons, naming the JPN director-general, home minister and Malaysian government as respondents.

In today's proceedings, conducted online, a team of lawyers led by Gurdial Singh Nijar represented Family Frontiers and the mothers while a team of lawyers led by Cyrus Das represented Mahisha. 

Lawyers Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, A Surendra Ananth, Khoo Suk Chyi and Wong Ming Yen appeared as amicus curiae for the Bar Council while lawyer Tay Kit Hoo held a watching brief for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia or Suhakam.

Lawyer Denise Lim held a watching brief for the Association of Women Lawyers, Women's Centre for Change, Sisters in Islam and Justice for Sisters.