Majority ruling may have main authorized implications in multiethnic nation that operates a twin judicial system.
Malaysia’s prime courtroom has dominated that 16 Islamic legal guidelines within the northeastern state of Kelantan are unconstitutional in a landmark resolution that might have main implications for the nation’s authorized system.
By an 8-1 majority, the Federal Court docket dominated on Friday that the Kelantan state authorities didn’t have the ability to enact the legal guidelines, on offences from sodomy to sexual harassment, possession of false info, intoxication and scale measurements, as a result of they had been already coated by federal regulation and had been the duty of the federal parliament.
Malaysia is a federal nation the place states have jurisdiction over legal guidelines associated to Islam, the official faith. It additionally operates a twin authorized system the place Islamic regulation applies to Muslims, who make up simply over 60 % of the inhabitants, in private and household issues, in addition to the observe of their faith. All different offences are dealt with by the civil courts.
Kelantan, seen because the heartland of ethnic Malay Muslim tradition, has been dominated by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) since 1990.
“The ability of parliament and state legislatures are restricted by the Federal Structure they usually can’t make any legal guidelines they like,” Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mai was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s BFM radio as she delivered the findings of the nine-judge panel.
The case was introduced in 2022 by Kelantan lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter after the state authorities handed a brand new set of legal guidelines on Islamic offences.
The 2 challenged the constitutionality of 18 of the legal guidelines arguing that they had been past the jurisdiction of the state meeting and already coated by parliament.
The Federal Court docket didn’t strike down the 2 different legal guidelines and confused that the 2 girls had not introduced the case to problem the place of Islam or the Islamic authorized system.
About 1,000 folks together with PAS supporters and conservative Muslims gathered exterior the courtroom in Putrajaya forward of the ruling.
