A 10-year-old boy – born to a Malaysian father and a Filipina mother – has been refused Malaysian citizenship by the Federal Court, which dismissed his appeal through a majority 4-3 decision today.
The reason for the dismissal was that the child did not meet the required criteria under the Federal Constitution to be declared a Malaysian citizen by operation of law, said Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf while delivering the court’s decision.
RELATED STORY: Background check proposed for non-Emiratis seeking to marry UAE citizens
The boy had been born in the Philippines in September 2010 but had travelled with his parents a few months later to Malaysia, where the couple registered their marriage in February 2011.
Justice Rohana noted that the legitimisation of the child after birth precluded him from being a citizen by operation of law under Article 14 of the Federal Constitution.
“This is because the provisions of the Federal Constitution are clear that citizenship by operation of law must be determined at his birth, not after that.”
Earlier, when the child’s father’s application to the National Registration Department (NRD) for his son’s citizenship was rejected without any valid reason in 2012, the boy — through his father – filed an originating summons against the NRD director-general, the Home Ministry secretary-general and the Malaysian government, seeking a declaration that he is a Malaysian citizen and urging the NRD director-general to issue him a birth certificate and Malaysian identity card.
READ ON: Angelo Kouame gets Filipino citizenship
However, when the High Court dismissed the originating summons on Feb 14, 2019, the boy — represented by a team of lawyers led by Datuk Dr Cyrus Das — obtained leave to appeal to the Federal Court on Oct 1, 2019 on four legal questions for the court to determine.
Meanwhile, Justice Tengku Maimun, in allowing the boy’s appeal, said the boy had met all requirements to get citizenship by operation of law as there was no dispute with regard to the child’s biological father.
Noting that the word “father” in section 1 (b) in Part II of the Federal Constitution’s Second Schedule means biological father of the child, she said whether a person is illegitimate or not is an irrelevant fact to determine the entitlement to citizenship provided that the identity of the biological father is known. (AW)
