Thursday December 29, 2005
Group: Amend Constitution to cure grave legal defect
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism feels that a subsection of the Federal Constitution should be repealed to make it clear that the Syariah Court has no jurisdiction to hear matters involving non-Muslims.
Its president Rev Sri K. Dhammananda said the Moorthy case had raised some constitutional issue as the Civil High Court should be the court to decide on such cases.
“The council is very disturbed by what has happened today (Wednesday). It is considered a crisis for non-Muslims because they can seek no legal remedy.
“The facts were not presented to the Civil High Court, therefore it is very hard to accept its decision,” he told a press conference yesterday.
He called on the Prime Minister and other relevant parties to look into this matter.
“We call on the Government to urgently cure this grave defect in our legal system by making the necessary amendments to the Federal Constitution and all other legislation so that jurisdiction to determine the validity of conversions into and out of Islam are vested in the High Court where all Malaysians can be parties and have equal rights as witnesses,” he said.
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