Woman gets leave to challenge Home Ministry's rejection of citizenship request

KUALA LUMPUR: A 67-year-old woman today obtained leave from the High Court here to initiate a judicial review proceeding to challenge the Home Ministry's decision in rejecting her application to get Malaysian citizenship.

Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid allowed the application by the woman, who has seven children, after her lawyer, Larissa Ann Louis, informed the court that the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), through a letter dated last Jan 3, did not object to it.

The judge then fixed Jan 19 for case management.

The woman filed the application last Nov 22, naming the Home Ministry secretary-general, the National Registration Department's director-general (NRD) and the government of Malaysia as the first to third respondents.

She is seeking, among others, a declaration that the decision by the defendants in rejecting her application to get a Malaysian citizenship in a letter dated Aug 23, 2022, was null and void.

Based on an affidavit filed in the court, the woman said she was born in 1955 at Hospital Teluk Anson in Perak, but was abandoned by her biological mother and was raised by her adoptive Malaysian parents. Her biological parents are now deceased.

She was married in 1974 to her husband, who is stateless, but held a permanent resident status, and they have seven children. Her husband died in 2016.

In 2017, she applied to the NRD for Malaysian citizenship by naturalisation under Article 19 of the Federal Constitution, but her application was rejected on Aug 23 last year with no reason given.

-- BERNAMA