Written By : Jivan Daniel Louis
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ruled that the government must grant citizenship by operation of law to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
Judge Akhtar Tahir, who delivered his verdict through a remote proceeding, said the word “father” in the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution must mean and include mothers.
In allowing several declaratory reliefs sought by an NGO and six mothers that certain provisions on citizenship in the Federal Constitution are discriminatory, he said they were entitled to confer citizenship by operation of law in all processes, just like fathers.
“The judge came to this verdict after a harmonious reading of several articles in the Constitution,” said lead counsel Gurdial Singh Nijar.
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