The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ruled that it has no jurisdiction to hear an application by two self-confessed apostate followers of self-styled spiritual leader Ayah Pin seeking a declaratory release that they are no longer Muslims.

In rejecting the application by Kamariah Ali, 54, and Daud Mamat, 74, justice Md Raus Sharif said the jurisdiction to decide the matter was with the Syariah Court and not the civil court.

"Although the duo had declared they renounced Islam and the religious authority supposedly could not take action against them, however the Syariah Court had ruled against their declaration," Nanyang Online quoted him as saying in a report this evening.

He added that Article 121(1A) of the federal constitution clearly stated that all matters pertaining to Islam should be handled by the Syariah Court.

Renounced Islam

Kamariah and Daud were asking the court to decide if the Syariah laws still applied to them since they have renounced Islam.

Both of them had made a similar application, together with two others, including Kamariah's late husband, after renouncing Islam in 1998 via a statutory declaration.

A subsequent appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed in July 2004.

On Wednesday, justice Md Raus had also cited the same provisions in ruling the highly-publicised Mount Everest hero M Moorthy's case.

He rejected an application by the Moorthy's family who sought the civil court's review on a Syariah Court's decision that Moorthy had died a Muslim. His family has insisted that he was a practicing Hindu.