Housewife S Banggarma will file a civil action within the next one week to seek court order to nullify her ‘Islamic conversion’, which allegedly done by Penang religious authorities when she was seven.
Her counsel Gooi Hsiao Leung said that he would seek the civil court to nullify his client conversion based on Article 12.4 of the Federal Constitution and Section 80 of the Penang Administration of Islamic Affairs Enactment 1993.
“The Federal Constitution prohibits conversion of minors to any religion without parental or guardian consent.
“The Penang Islamic statute stipulates that anyone below the age of 18 shall not be converted to Islam without the consent of his or her parents,” Gooi told Malaysiakini today.
He is finalising the necessary legal papers to seek a court order to nullify Banggarma’s conversion on grounds that she was converted without her parents’ consent when she was a seven-year-old fledgling.
Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, lives in Tanjung Piandang, Perak with her fisherman husband S Sockalingam and two children - Kanagaraj, eight, and Hisyanthini, two.
She had claimed last month that she was converted unwittingly on Dec 28, 1989 by the Penang welfare department when she was seven and living in the welfare home.
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Due to her unwitting conversion, she claimed she could not get her Hindu marriage registered.
However, the welfare department director-general Meme Zainal Rashid had claimed that Banggarma was converted when she was only a year-old on Nov 30, 1983 in Rompin, Pahang with her parental consent.
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Following Meme’s claim, Gooi has written a legal letter of action demanding the welfare department to furnish his client the documented proof to substantiate its claim.
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He also demanded Meme to furnish his client the court order obtained under the 1947 Juveline Courts Act to place Banggarma in Rumah Kanak Kanak Taman Bakti in Kepala Batas, where she was allegedly converted.
Banggarma, 27, has already rubbished Meme’s claim that she was never converted by her natural Hindu parents, plantation worker B Subramaniam and Latchumy Ramadu.
Penang Islamic Religious Council (Mainpp) president Shabudin Yahaya also Meme’s claim alleging that the council probe had revealed Banggarma conversion was done by her parents.
He also claimed the conversion done in the welfare home was merely “reconfirm Banggarma’s earlier conversion.”
Gooi said the department had recently replied to his letter enclosing several documents to substantiate its claim that Banggarma was converted by her own parents when she was 12 months old.
“But a close perusal over the documents proved inconsistencies and discrepancies on many legal issues.
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“These issues needed to be addressed by the civil court,” he said, declining further comment on the documents.
He said Banggarma’s case was a civil matter because it involved unconstitutional and unlawful conversion of a minor to Islam.
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"This is a case of a person been converted involuntarily and unwittingly to Islam.
“It is not a case of a voluntaryMuslim convert seeking court order to renounce Islam,” he pointed out when asked on whether the Syariah Court was the correct mechanism to seek legal remedy.
Banggarma’s case drew widespread national attention among Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar has called on the federal government to stop ‘forced, involuntary and unwitting’ conversion of minors to Islam.
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