Friday June 30, 2006
NRD has right to require apostasy order, says counsel
PUTRAJAYA: The National Registration Department (NRD) has an implied power to require Lina Joy to submit to it an apostasy order from the Syariah Court.
This is provided for under the National Registration Regulations, said Senior Federal Counsel Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, adding that the implied power was necessary and appropriate for the NRD to carry out its purpose.
She said the National Registration (Amendment) Regulations 2000, which were brought into force retrospectively on Oct 1, 1999, included a provision to compel a Muslim to state his religion.
She said although the regulations were gazetted in March 2000, the NRD was allowed to place the word “Islam” on identity cards from Oct 1, 1999.
Umi Kalthum said the regulations were procedural and, therefore, could be applied retrospectively to identity cards from Oct 1, 1999. This included Lina’s application to change her name in her identity card.
“The rights of the individual, the appellant (Lina) in this case, would not be affected,” she said.
She said the contention of Lina's counsel Datuk Cyrus Das – that the NRD had tricked Lina into making a statutory declaration without revealing her change of religion in order to get her name changed from Azlina Jailani to Lina Joy – was unjustified.
“Malaysians are very helpful people and the appellant (Lina) was very anxious to make the change. That was not a proper thing to say,” Umi Kalthum said, adding that Das’ insinuation that NRD conspired to thwart Lina’s efforts could not be sustained.
Justice Richard Malanjum then interjected, “Readers’ Digest would not agree with you,” in an apparent reference to a survey in Kuala Lumpur by the publication which revealed that Malaysians were a rude lot.
Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim allowed Federal Territory Religious Council counsel Sulaiman Abdullah to adjourn his submissions to Monday after the lawyer told the court that he was ill.
Sulaiman was not present on the first day of the appeal at the Federal Court on Wednesday as he was attending a conference.
At the end of yesterday’s proceedings, Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz told assistant counsel Halimahtun Saadiah Abdul Rahman that if Sulaiman was still unwell she would have to make the submissions instead.
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