Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, Malaysia & Anor v Nivethah A/P Thamayandiran & Anor

Appellant(s): Majlis Agama Islam Selangor

Respondent(s):

• Nivethah A/P Thamayandiran
• Swetha A/P Thamayandiran

• YA Dato' Mohd Nazlan Bin Mohd Ghazali
• YA Dato' Ahmad Fairuz bin Zainol Abidin
• YA Datuk Dr Lim Hock Leng

• The respondents, two sisters, initiated an action at the High Court seeking declarations that their religion is Hindu and that Selangor Islamic laws do not apply to them, challenging the National Registration Department's (NRD) issuance of identity cards identifying them as Muslims.
• The High Court granted the respondents' prayers, declaring them Hindus and ordering the NRD to issue identity cards reflecting this, which led to appeals by the NRD and Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (MAIS).
• The factual matrix involved the respondents' maternal grandmother being a Muslim, who had an illegitimate daughter (the respondents' mother) with a Hindu man; this daughter, in turn, had the respondents illegitimately with another Hindu man.

• Whether the respondents are Muslims by virtue of Section 2(1)(b) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003 (ARIE 2003), which defines a Muslim based on the religion of their parents at birth.
• The proper interpretation of "parents" in Section 2(1)(b) of the ARIE 2003 when a child is illegitimate, considering Section 111 of the Islamic Family Law Enactment (State of Selangor) 2003 (IFLE 2003) which denies paternity to the father of an illegitimate child.
• Whether the Civil Courts possess jurisdiction to determine a person's religious status as "never a Muslim" or "no longer a Muslim," particularly in light of Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution and the jurisdiction of the Syariah Courts.

• The Court of Appeal set aside the High Court's decision, holding that Section 111 of the IFLE 2003 only affects the legal paternity of an illegitimate child's father, but does not render Section 2(1)(b) of the ARIE 2003 entirely inapplicable to the mother.
• The Court found that the respondents' mother was a Muslim because her own mother was a Muslim at the time of her birth, thereby establishing the respondents as Muslims under Section 2(1)(b) of the ARIE 2003 through their Muslim mother.
• Consequently, the Court ruled that the respondents' application was a renunciation case (seeking a declaration of no longer being Muslim), which falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Syariah Courts under Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution and relevant state enactments, thus divesting the Civil Courts of jurisdiction.