April 30 case management of SIB's appeal

KUALA LUMPUR: The case management for Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Church's appeal on the discovery of documents pertaining to the Cabinet's decision in 1986 which prohibited the use of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim publications, has been rescheduled to April 30.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, when contacted by Bernama today, said it was earlier fixed for today before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Jalidah Hamid, but it was vacated.

“We received an email from the court notifying that the case management for SIB's appeal which was scheduled today, has been vacated. The next case management has been fixed on April 30 at the Court of Appeal,” he said.

On Oct 16, 2017, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the church's application for the documents, ruling that the documents were classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and could not be released.

The documents were requested by the church and its president, Datuk Jerry W. A. Dusing @ Jerry W. Pate, in a judicial review application filed on Dec 10, 2007 against the Home Ministry and the government over their right to use the word Allah to refer to God in their religious publications.

The application was also filed to challenge the decision of the Royal Malaysian Customs to seize religious books brought in from Surabaya, Indonesia, which contained the word Allah, at the low cost carrier terminal in Sepang on Aug 15, 2007.

They are seeking a declaration that they have a constitutional right to use the word Allah in their Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia-translated Christian bibles and in all their religious publications and materials.

On Oct 1, 2014, the Court of Appeal gave the nod to the church to initiate a judicial review application over the right to use the word “Allah” in all its religious publications and materials after Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 5, 2014 dismissed the SIB church's leave application to commence a judicial review.

Following the Court of Appeal's decision, the matter was remitted to the High Court for hearing on the merits of the church's judicial review.

However, the merits of the judicial review have yet to be heard at the High Court as SIB had first applied to obtain documents. – Bernama