Kuala Lumpur: The High Court here turned down a woman’s bid to start a legal challenge to be allowed to renounce Islam.
Judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid denied the 32-year-old woman’s leave application to commence judicial review proceedings against the shariah courts’ decision to disallow her attempt to leave Islam.
However, the court did not provide grounds as to why it refused to entertain her application. The High Court also ordered her to pay RM2,000 in costs to the government.
The woman, born a Muslim, claimed she never practised Islam and that her mother had allowed her to choose her religion.
She said she had previously gone to the Shariah High Court here to seek an order to convert out of Islam as she wanted to practise Buddhism.
Shortly after she filed her application at the Shariah High Court seeking to renounce Islam, the court ordered her to attend 12 “counselling” sessions.
Subsequently, the court denied her application to leave Islam, and told her to go for more counselling sessions. When she appealed, the Shariah Appeals Court upheld the ruling.
The woman then turned to the civil courts to nullify the decisions of the shariah courts. She claimed the decision to reject her “conversion out” application violated Article 11, which guaranteed a person’s freedom of religion.
The court heard submissions on April 27 from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the woman’s lawyers.
A government lawyer contended in the High Court that decisions of the shariah courts were final, and that the civil courts had no power to review them.
Meanwhile, the woman’s lawyer, Fahri Azzat, argued that her case ought to be ventilated at a full trial.
Fahri later told reporters that the woman had instructed the legal team to file an appeal against Wednesday’s decision.
