Moorthy's Case: Civil Court Has No Jurisdiction

If you realize, I rarely write on the thing that is closely related to myself which is legal stuff / legal matter / legal issue. I don't know why but maybe I don't really prefer to write about it on this blog, but this time I think it is necessary to share something about it.

Basically this is the yesterday news with regard the Court of Appeal decision on Moorthy's case. The head of the new reads "Civil court no jurisdiction to decide religious status".

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here Friday ruled that the civil court has no jurisdiction to determine the religious status of the late Everest climber Sergeant M. Moorthy, whose conversion to Islam has been a subject of dispute.

A three-man panel comprising Datuk Zainun Ali, Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Clement Allan Skinner made the ruling when dismissing the appeal brought by Moorthy's widow S. Kaliammal.

The bench held that the Syariah Court was the competent authority to determine any matter relating to the conversion to, or renouncement of, Islam.

Kaliammal, who was present in court, was appealing against the High Court's ruling on Dec 28, 2005, which refused to determine the religious status of her late husband on grounds that a matter of this nature was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Syariah Court.

She filed an originating summons on Dec 21, 2005 to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, which, among other things, sought a declaration that Moorthy was a Hindu.

The following day, the Kuala Lumpur Islamic Affairs Religious Council obtained an ex-parte order from the Syariah Court stating that Moorthy had embraced Islam prior to his death.

The order also permitted the council to bury Moorthy, whose Muslim name was Mohamad Abdullah, according to Islamic rites.

He was buried on Dec 28, 2005 at the Taman Ibukota Muslim Cemetery in Gombak, Selangor.

Source: New Straits Times

The conflict of jurisdiction between Civil Courts and Syariah Courts started long before the amendment to our Federal Constitution which is before the Article 121A is inserted. The Article stops Civil Courts from intervening in Islamic affairs which should be dealt by the Syariah Courts.

However, since then, Civil Courts seems to give better recognition to the Syariah Courts. As we can see above, the decision made by the Court of Appeal dismissing Moorthy's widow appeal is very important. Article 121A does have effect since it came to an existence.

However, there are still conflicts that hardly be resolved involving the jurisdictions between Civil and Syariah Courts. I won't discuss it here. But it is good that our Syariah Court is not that inferior to Civil Court since Article 121A appears in our Federal Constitution.