Malaysia's highest court on Thursday rejected on technical grounds an appeal by an ethnic Indian Hindu woman to stop her Muslim convert husband from seeking a divorce in the Islamic 'Shariah' court, while upholding the man's right to change the religion of their youngest son.
Twenty nine-year-old R Subashini's petition was rejected by the Federal Court as she had filed it within three months of the conversion of her husband, Saravanan Thangathoray alias Muhammad Shafi Abdullah, 32.
Her lawyers said she will again file the petition in the High Court to meet the legal requirement that it should be filed three months after the conversion. Subashini is not opposed to divorcing her husband, but wants the procedure to take place in a civil court.
The Federal Court on Thursday said her Muslim convert husband had a right to approach the Shariah courts. It also upheld his right to convert the couple's youngest of the two sons to Islam.
Saravanan claims that the elder child had already converted to Islam with him. The judgment further said that both civil courts and Shariah courts have equal status in Malaysia.
A clear picture of Thursday's ruling would emerge after a full reading of the verdict, lawyers said.
Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman, the presiding judge of the three-member panel, noted that 'civil courts continue to have jurisdiction, notwithstanding his (the husband's) conversion to Islam... A non-Muslim
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