Landmark ruling due at Palace of Justice Thursday

The first will see the court hear new arguments by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) which will make its appeal in the case of a non-Muslim lawyer, Victoria Jayaseele Martin, who was seeking to be a Shariah lawyer in the Federal Territories in 2009.

The Shariah Lawyers Committee rejected her application because she was not a Muslim, as required by Rule 10 of the Rules of the Shariah Lawyers 1993. Martin subsequently filed a judicial review in October 2009, which the High Court dismissed two years later, ruling MAIWP was empowered to impose the condition.

But in 2013, the Court of Appeal, led by then judge Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin (now Federal Court judge), in a landmark ruling declared Rule 10 exceeded the boundaries of the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993.

It cites the Federal Constitution’s Article 8 (1), Article 8 (2) on equality before the law and the right to non-discrimination, and Article 5 and Article 10(1)(c) which guarantees the liberty of a person and the freedom to form associations respectively.

The second case that will be heard is the appeal by the Negeri Sembilan Government and four others, against the landmark decision by the appellate court which declared a state law that criminalises Muslim men for cross-dressing, was invalid.

The Court of Appeal last November allowed an appeal brought by three transgenders, Muhamad Juzaili Mohamad Khamis, 26; Syukor Jani, 28, and Wan Fairol Wan Ismail, 30, and declared Section 66 of the Negeri Sembilan Shariah Criminal (Negeri Sembilan) Enactment 1992, which criminalises Muslim men for cross-dressing, as invalid and unconstitutional.

The three transgenders, who were bridal make-up artists, claimed that section 66 did not apply to them as they suffered from Gender Identity Disorder, certified in a medical report from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

It was reported on May 14 that the Federal Court set the hearing for the cross-dressing appeal together with MAIWP's appeal in Martin's case on the same day, Aug 13, because the Negeri Sembilan Government had raised a similar issue.