PUTRAJAYA, Sept 6 — The Federal Court fixed September 19 for further case management of the Association of Family Support and Welfare Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) and six Malaysian Mothers’ application for leave to appeal against a ruling denying automatic citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.
Abraham Au, one of the lawyers representing Family Frontier and the mothers when contacted, said the court has set the new case management date as the court wanted Mahisha Sulaiha Abdul Majeed’s citizenship case to be heard together with their case.
He also said the court brought forward the case management proceedings to today after a certificate of urgency was filed by them. The court had initially fixed September 28 for case management.
Au also said that his clients were seeking to expedite the hearing of their application for leave to appeal but the Attorney-General’s Chambers disagreed as the Court of Appeal had already stated that the status quo for overseas-born children of the six mothers who had obtained citizenship, would be maintained pending disposal of their leave to appeal.
Federal Counsel Mohammad Sallehuddin Md Ali representing the government, Home Ministry and National Registration Department (NRD) director-general and lawyer Loh Suk Hwa representing Family Frontier and the mothers, attended the case management proceedings which were conducted via e-review before Federal Court deputy registrar Rasidah Roslee.
Family Frontier and the six mothers filed their leave to appeal the application on August 26, this year, to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses were not entitled to Malaysian citizenship by operation of law.
On August 5 this year the appellate court, in a 2-majority decision allowed the government’s appeal to overturn the High Court landmark ruling allowing children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses to get Malaysian citizenship.
On the same day, the same appellate court panel also dismissed an appeal by 24-year-old Mahisha Sulaiha against the High Court’s decision in 2020, which rejected her suit which she filed to seek a declaration that she is entitled to be a Malaysian citizen.
In civil cases, litigants must first obtain leave before they can proceed with the appeal to the Federal Court.
Family Frontiers and six women who are married to foreigners wanted a court order for all relevant government agencies, including the National Registration Department, Immigration Department and Malaysian embassies, to issue documents relating to citizenship (including passports and identity cards) to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.
— Bernama
