The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of a Hindu woman seeking to stop her husband from converting their son to Islam and dissolving their marriage in an Islamic court.

Two of the court's three justices dismissed the appeal of R Subshini, 28, a secretary, who was seeking to restrain the actions of her husband Muhammad Shafi Saravanan Abdullah, 30, a businessman, the New Straits Times reported.

He had converted to Islam, along with their three-year-old son, last May and then commenced proceedings at the syariah court to dissolve the marriage and gain custody of their second son, who is one year old, the paper reported.

In his judgement, Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar said it "made no sense" for Subshini to argue that the syariah court was only for Muslims according to the constitution, the New Straits Times said.

In a dissenting minority decision, Justice Gopal Sri Ram said the Shariah court only had jurisdiction where all parties were Muslim. In this case, the wife was Hindu, the report said.

Subshini's lawyer, K Shanmuga, was quoted as telling reporters that he would seek leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision to Malaysia's highest legal body, the Federal Court.

Malaysia's civil courts operate parallel to syariah courts for Muslims in areas of personal law, including divorce, child custody and inheritance.

But the question of which takes precedence is increasingly murky in cases that involve both Muslims and non-Muslims, who have little say in syariah courts.