KUALA LUMPUR: The cabinet, which met yesterday, has agreed to retract the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The bill was tabled for the first reading at the Dewan Rakyat on June 26 by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.
Muhyiddin said the issue on the status of a child’s name, in cases where the mother or father of the child converted to Islam, had been discussed at length by the Cabinet taking into consideration the views and concerns of various quarters including Barisan Nasional component parties.
“The cabinet had agreed that the retraction of the bill was necessary to ensure that the issue on the determination of the child’s religion in such cases was resolved in a fair manner for everyone,” he said in a statement, here yesterday.
Muhyiddin said the decision to retract the bill was also made in order to give ample time to the government and everyone else to review the bill in a holistic manner.
“The bill will only be tabled again after getting the agreement of all quarters,” he said.
All consequential amendments arising from the formulation of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 would also be retracted, he said.
Clause (4) Article 12 of the Federal Constitution provides that the religion of anyone under the age of 18 must be decided by his/her parent or guardian.
In this regard, the Federal Court in the case of Subashini d/o Rajasingam v. Saravanan s/o Thangathoray [2008] 2 MLJ 147 had interpreted the word ‘parent’ as singular. — Bernama