KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here will decide on the merit and issues on jurisdiction over religious matters in the judicial review application by Sisters In Islam (SIS) Forum (Malaysia) to challenge the decision of the Selangor Fatwa Committee in declaring the organisation as deviant and having deviated from the true teachings of Islam.
Syarie lawyer Majdah Muda, representing the selangor Islamic religious Council (MAIS), said among issues on jurisdiction to be decided was whether the civil courts had the powerto hear judicial review applications involving a fatwa.
“We are also challenging the third applicant in the case (former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department)Datuk Zaid Ibrahim whether he has locus standi to challenge the fatwa,” she told reporters after proceeding of the case in chambers before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Faizah Jamaludin yesterday.
She said the merits to be looked into included whether the fatwa contradicted the Federal Constitution and the state enactments and whether MAIS had acted beyond its powers.
She said the court set Nov 23 for further case management.
On Sept 25, the Federal Court seven-man bench chaired by Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjun ordered the suit to be remitted back to the High Court to decide on the issues of jurisdiction and merits.
Malanjum said all parties were free to submit their arguments on the issues of jurisdiction at the High Court level to save time and set aside the Court of Appeal’s decision on March 2 last year about whether a civil court had jurisdiction to hear a fatwa case.
A consent order was then recorded by the court and signed by both parties.
On June 24, 2016, the High Court dismissed the judicial review application filed by SIS, its founder Zainah Mahfoozah Anwar and former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to challenge a Selangor fatwa labelling the organisation as deviant, after ruling the civil courts did not have jurisdiction to decide over the issue of fatwa.
On Oct 31, 2014, SIS Forum (Malaysia), Zainah and Zaid filed the application to challenge the Selangor Fatwa Committee decision of declaring the organisation as deviating from Islamic teachings and named the Selangor Fatwa Committee, MAIS and the Selangor government as respondents.
They are seeking a certiorari order to quash the decision of the Selangor Fatwa Committee and MAIS which stated that the organisation and any individuals, as well as groups, which adopted the deviant ideologies of liberalism and pluralism were deviating from the teachings of Islam.
They also applied for a declaration that the decision of the Selangor Fatwa Committee and MAIS in directing through the edict which directed the Multimedia and Communications Commission to block social websites that went against Islamic teachings as contradicting Section 3 (3) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
They are also seeking a declaration that SIS, which was formed under the Companies Act 1965 as a company limited by guarantee, was not subject to the decisions of the Selangor Fatwa Committee and MAIS. — Bernama