Nov 14 hearing for Hindu mother's appeal on children's conversion

The appeal by a Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi on the validity of her three children's unilateral conversion to Islam, will be heard by the Federal Court on Nov 14.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the hearing of the appeal has been set for two days, on Nov 14 and Nov 15 by Federal Court senior assistant registrar Muhammad Noor Firdaus Rosli at a case management proceeding today, at the Federal Court registry.

Shamsul is representing the Education Ministry and the government of Malaysia who are among the respondents in the appeal.

Lawyer Aston Paiva representing Indira Gandhi, lawyer Hatim Musa for Indira Gandhi's ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah and Perak assistant legal adviser Suhaila Haron representing the Perak Islamic Religious Department director, the Perak government and Registrar of converts also attended the proceeding.

Meanwhile, Aston said he has requested for a nine-man bench to hear the appeal and informed the registrar of it.

The Federal Court is expected to hear submissions from counsels at the appeal hearing on three legal questions including a question on whether the mother and the father of a child in a civil marriage must consent before a certificate of conversion to Islam could be issued to the child.

The 41-year-old kindergarten teacher (Indira Gandhi) is appealing against the Court of Appeal's Dec 30 decision last year to reinstate the conversion certificates of her three children which was nullified by the Ipoh High Court.

In the 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that the civil High Court did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the validity of children's conversion which was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Syariah Court to determine.

On May 19, the Federal Court granted Indira Gandhi leave to appeal to the Federal Court.

The children, two girls and a boy, now aged 18, 17, and eight years old were converted to Islam by their father Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, 46, (formerly known as K. Pathmanathan) in April 2009 without Indira Gandhi's consent after his conversion to Islam. The children were then aged 12 and 11 years, and 11 months.

The Ipoh Civil High Court nullified the Syariah Court's order that gave custody of the children to Muhammad Riduan after it ruled that the Syariah High Court did not have the jurisdiction to grant the custody order when one party (the mother) was not a Muslim.