Kelantan govt needs green light from Palace
KOTA BARU: Amendments made to enactments in Kelantan cannot be gazetted without the green light from the Palace, said state Legal Adviser Datuk Shahidani Abd Aziz.
The head – or acting head – of the state, he said, must assent to the Bill before it could be gazetted and implemented.
He said this was unlike Article 66 Clause 4A of the Federal Constitution that allowed for Bills to become laws if the Yang di-Pertuan Agong did not assent to this at the end of a 30-day period.
The Syariah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2002 Amendment (2017) Bill, which allows for public caning, would only be gazetted after Acting Sultan of Kelantan Tengku Dr Muhammad Faiz Petra gave his assent to it, said Shahidani.
“The procedure at state level is different,” he said.
On Tuesday, the State Legislative Assembly unanimously passed 35 amendments to the enactment.
Shahidani also clarified that there was a difference between caning in public spaces and openly carrying out caning.
“It is clearly stated that caning should be held openly in the presence of a Muslim medical officer and witnessed by at least four men in any area gazetted by the state government, as ordered by the court.
“Caning openly means the implementation of the punishment where a group of Muslims can become witnesses,” he said.
State Islamic Development committee chairman Datuk Nassuruddin Daud said caning could be carried out in halls as well as the compounds of mosques and stadiums.
“Carrying out punishment openly does not mean we do it in ... crowded public spaces.
“It can be carried out in enclosed areas such as halls as long as the punishment can be carried out outside prison walls,” he said.
The amendments, he said, were necessary because not all types of offences warranted imprisonment as a punishment.
“Certain offences such as drinking alcoholic beverages only require caning. But because caning is only done in prison under the existing Enactment, the judge would have no choice but to send the offender to prison so that the caning could be carried out.
“With the amendment, the offen- ders can just go to the place ordered by the court for caning and return home after that. They need not wait inside prison for the punishment to be meted out,” he said.
Nassuruddin also said the state government had yet to meet to decide on the potential venues for open caning.
“After identifying the venue, we will gazette it. The court will then decide where to deliver the punishment,” he said.