KL High Court Rules That Children Born To M’sian Mothers Overseas Are Entitled To Citizenship

Babies born abroad to Malaysian mothers and foreign spouses will automatically be entitled to Malaysian citizenship, as decided by the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

Based on a report by the Family Frontiers Malaysia, High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir, who made the decision said that the word ‘father’ in the Second Schedule, Part II, Section 1(b) of the Federal Constitution must be read to include mothers.

This decision was made while allowing the originating suit, which was filed to seek a declaration that the children of Malaysian women married to foreign spouses are automatically eligible to acquire citizenship even if they were born abroad.

The suit was filed by the Family Frontiers group and six Malaysian women on 18 December 2020.

According to Berita Harian, lawyer, Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar, said Akhtar ruled that Malaysian women who marry foreign men have the same right as Malaysian men who marry foreign women. Hence, citizenship should be granted in both scenarios through the legal process on their children born abroad.

“The judge also ordered that relevant authorities must issue relevant documents such as identity cards to the children involved,” he said, adding that this will be in line with Article 8 (2) of the Federal Constitution, read in conjunction with Article 14 (1) (b) of the Federal Constitution, which does not conflict with Part (1) (b) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

He also shared that the move took a firm stand that gender discrimination should not be practised because Parliament had amended Article 8 of the Constitution in 2001, which states that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal legal protection.

Through the originating suit filed last year, the group and the six Malaysian mothers acting as plaintiffs named the Malaysian Government as the sole defendant.

They sought several declarations, among them that Section 1 (b) and Section 1 (c) of the Second Schedule of Part II of the Federal Constitution be read together with Article 8 (2), by inserting including the word ‘mother’ as a condition for children born abroad to be given citizenship status automatically.

The plaintiffs also sought a court order for relevant government agencies, including the National Registration Department (JPN), the Immigration Department and the Malaysian embassy to issue citizenship-related documents, including passports and identity cards to children born abroad by Malaysian mothers and foreign spouses.

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