1. ) SIS FORUM (MALAYSIA) 2. ) XXXX v 1. ) XXXX 2. ) MAJLIS AGAMA ISLAM SELANGOR 3. ) Kerajaan Negeri Selangor

Case Significance

Addresses the justiciability of a gazetted fatwa before the civil courts and the boundary between civil and Syariah jurisdiction under Article 121(1) and Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution.

This Federal Court decision addresses whether the civil courts may review the legality of a gazetted fatwa, and the boundary between civil and Syariah jurisdiction under the Federal Constitution. The first appellant is a company limited by guarantee and the second an individual; the respondents are the Selangor Fatwa Committee, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council and the State Government of Selangor. The challenge was directed at a fatwa said to require federal authorities to take specific action, including directing federal agencies to block social-media content and mandating the confiscation of publications, powers otherwise governed by federal law such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. The appeal raised whether a gazetted fatwa made under the state religious administration enactment qualifies as subsidiary legislation reviewable for constitutionality and reasonableness; whether the civil courts, in light of the relationship between Article 121(1) and Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution, may examine a fatwa's legality as distinct from its religious substance; and whether such a fatwa could lawfully apply to a corporation and to non-Muslim persons. The majority judgment emphasised that the bodies which issued the fatwa are organs of the Executive, that their exercise of statutory power is subject to judicial review in the ordinary way, and that reviewing the manner in which, and the legal basis on which, such a decision is made does not draw the court into the substance of religious belief or the administration of Islam. On that footing the majority treated the challenge to the fatwa's legality as justiciable before the civil courts, while a member of the panel took a different view. The judgment is significant for its treatment of the reviewability of gazetted fatwas and the demarcation of civil and Syariah jurisdiction. The decision is a significant statement on the reach of judicial review over religious-administration bodies, holding that the exercise of statutory power by such bodies is examined in the same way as that of any other organ of the Executive, without the court entering upon questions of religious doctrine.