00:00The Perlis government has failed in its bid to reinstate the religious status of Lo Siuhong's three children as Muslims.
00:09This follows a unanimous decision of a three-member federal court bench chaired by the Chief Judge of Malaya, Hasna Hashim,
00:17that the applicant had not met the threshold under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995.
00:24Hasna said they found no merit in their review application as there was no miscarriage of justice.
00:30In seeking the review, the state government contended that its right to be hurt had been severely compromised during an application for leave to appeal a court of appeal decision,
00:40which declared the conversion of Lo's children to Islam unlawful.
00:44In 2020, Lo's three children were unilaterally converted to Islam in Perlis by her former husband.
00:49She then took the matter to the High Court, seeking a declaration that her children's conversions violated Article 12, Subsection 4 of the Federal Constitution,
00:58but the High Court dismissed their application and upheld the conversions.
01:03However, on January 10 last year, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision,
01:08holding that the conversions had run afoul of Article 12, Subsection 4,
01:12which states that the religion of children below 18 years old shall be determined by their parent or guardian.
01:18The Apex Court ruled that the term parent in that provision must be interpreted to refer to both parents of the child in question.
