Provide clear remedy in civil law when spouse converts to Islam, says DAP

The DAP wants amendments made to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act to stop unilateral conversion of minors by a spouse who has embraced Islam.

Its national vice-chairman M. Kulasegaran (pic) said a long lasting solution must be found or else cases of such nature would recur.

"Section 51 of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act must be clarified to give a proper remedy to the non-converting spouse," the Ipoh Barat MP told a forum on Tamil awakening in Butterworth today.

Kulasegaran, a lawyer, is the counsel for kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi, who is embroiled in a custody battle with her ex-husband Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah.

Ridzuan has refused to hand over their youngest daughter, Prasana Diksa, to Indira, despite a 2010 High Court order awarding her custody of their three children.

The Shariah High Court in Ipoh had in 2009 given Ridzuan custody of the three children after he unilaterally converted them to Islam.

However, in July last year, the Ipoh High Court quashed the conversion of the children and ruled that the certificates of conversion were unconstitutional.

On May 30, the court which found Ridzuan guilty of contempt of court for failing to return Prasana to Indira, also granted her a recovery order and warrant of arrest against the ex-husband.

On September 12 the High Court also granted Indira a mandamus order to compel Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to arrest Ridzuan and to locate Prasana.

However, Khalid obtained a stay pending a decision by the Court of Appeal.

Kulasegaran said section 51 stated that the High Court, upon dissolving the marriage, may make provision for a spouse and for the support, care and custody of the children of the marriage, maintenance and division of property.

He said the civil court may also attach any conditions to the dissolution as it thinks fit.

However, he said section 51 of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act was unclear when one of the spouses converted to Islam.

A non-Muslim spouse could not go to the Shariah Court as the religious court was exclusive to persons professing the religion of Islam.

"Section 51 should be strengthened as it is the only remedy for a spouse when the other partner in the civil marriage has converted to Islam," he added.

Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who delivered a keynote address at a national conference organised by the Judicial and Legal Service Training Institute last week, said unilateral conversion had resulted a new conflict between civil and Shariah laws.

"The increasing number of cases has also raised allegations of racial discrimination by the courts and authorities," he said.

He said the failure of the converting spouses to resolve the family arrangements prior to conversion, as well as attempts to use the the civil and Shariah courts to their advantage, had jeopardised family and national harmony.

"Consequentially, the integrity of the police and the Attorney General’s Chambers is also called into question due to the issue of enforcement of conflicting court orders," he said.

Gani said that in 2009, amendments were proposed to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 to ensure that issues like child custody would be determined by the court in which the marriage was registered.

"These amendments, however, remain pending," he said. – November 16, 2014.

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