[STATEMENT] The Law Society of University of Malaya hereby expresses our concern towards the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, which has been tabled in Parliament yesterday. Section 107 (b) of the said Bill provides that unilateral conversion of minor children to Islam only requires consent from one parent. The original wordings of the section is as follow: “Bagi maksud Bahagian ini, seseorang yang tidak beragama Islam boleh memeluk agama Islam jika dia sempurna akal dan: (b) jika dia belum mencapai umur lapan belas tahun, ibu atau bapa atau penjaganya mengizinkan pemelukan agama Islam olehnya.” UM Law Society is of the opinion that this section is inconsistent with Art12(4) of Federal Constitution, which states that “the religion of a person under the age of eighteen years shall be decided by his parent or guardian.” Although literally, it may seem that only consent of one parent is needed under our constitution, Article 12(4) must be read with Article 160 and Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution, which clearly expressed that “words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular.” Therefore, Article 12(4) must be construed as consent of both parents is required in converting minor children to another religion, which renders s107b unconstitutional. Therefore, the Law Society hereby urges the parliament to take due consideration towards this confusion and make necessary amendment thereto. Parliamentarians must refrain from passing bills which are inconsistent with the constitution. After all, as what we were taught in our Constitutional Law lecture, “the Constitution is supreme, the Parliament is not”. UM Law Society 2013/2014
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 06:59:51 +0000
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