Two of five stateless children cases resolved

PUTRAJAYA: Two out of five cases of stateless children were resolved after the Home Ministry granted them citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

The children were given letters, notifying them that their application for citizenship had been approved, from the Attorney-General’s Chambers at the Federal Court yesterday.

The two children are a 13-yearold girl, who was born to a Malaysian man and his wife from Papua New Guinea, and an 18year-old boy who was adopted by a Malaysian couple.

Ranee Sreedharan, counsel for the 13-year-old girl, said the government had withdrawn an appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had ordered citizenship to be issued to the girl.

“So, the decision of the Court Appeal stands.

“We have received a letter that citizenship has been approved under Article 15A.”

Article 15A provides special powers to the Federal Government to register anyone under 21 as a citizen.

Lawyer Latheefa Koya had appeared for two stateless children, one of them was the 18-year-old boy.

In the other case, she said the Home Ministry required more documents to support the fact that the mother of the 8-year-old boy was no longer residing in Malaysia.

The boy was born to a Malaysian father and a Thai mother. They were not legally married when he was born.

“The boy’s father had raised the child after the mother left when he was 6 months old.

“The Home Ministry has agreed to offer citizenship under Article 15A if we can present the necessary documents,” she said.

For the remaining two cases, the Federal Court has set Nov 26 for the deputy public prosecutor to update the court on the status of a fresh application for citizenship under Article 15A.

The application must be filed by Monday.

Represented by lawyer Datuk Cyrus Das, the two cases involved two boys, aged 17 and 18, with unknown parents and who were separately adopted by two Malaysian couples.

The Federal Court’s nine-man bench yesterday was led by Chief Justice Richard Malanjum, while the government was represented by senior federal counsel Suzana Atan.

Previously, Malanjum had proposed forming a nine-member bench to hear constitutional cases and a seven-member panel for public interest cases.

In the past, only up to sevenmember benches were constituted to hear cases in the Federal Court.