Catholic weekly The Herald has filed for a review of the Federal Court's controversial decision not to grant the Catholic Church's Archbishop leave (permission) to appeal the 'Allah' ban on the  publication.

One of the lawyers, Benjamin Dawson, said they are raising three main grounds in their application.

The firm, Fernandez and Selvarajah, the solicitors in the case, filed the application at 3.30pm today.

On June 23, a seven- member panel headed by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria in a slim 4 to 3 decision disallowed The Herald 's application to appeal the Court of Appeal decision reinstating the ban.

The other judges who voted against allowing the appeal were President of the Court of Appeal Justice Md Raus Sharif, Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin and Federal Court judge Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar.

The judges who voted in allowing the hearing of the appeal were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum and Federal Court judges Justices Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha and Zainun Ali.

The long-drawn out legal battle began when the High Court on Dec 31, 2009 ruled in favour of The Herald and lifted the Home Ministry's earlier ban on the publication's use of the word 'Allah' in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.

However, the Court of Appeal last year in a majority decision overturned the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision and ruled that ‘Allah’ is not an essential term for the Christian community.

Three main grounds of appeal

Dawson said the three main grounds for the review are:

  • Certain legal issues which were central to the permission to appeal application were not considered in the majority judgment. This includes the central question of the scope of Article 3 (Islam being the religion of the federation) and Article 11 (freedom of religion) as stipulated in the federal constitution and also the minister’s decision to prohibit the use of the word ‘Allah’ in The Herald also took into account of theological consideration which were not supported.

 

  • The majority judgment also decided certain legal issues which were not argued nor raised before the Federal Court or the Court of Appeal and this included, for instance, the constitutional validity of Section 9 of the Anti-Propagation Enactment.

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  • The Herald ’s appeal is one of the most important constitutional cases to have come before our courts especially involving minority rights are concerned over the use of the word ‘Allah’.
    • Dawson said there are other grounds but this are the three main grounds in support of the review application.

    The word ‘Allah’ is also used mainly by the Christian community in Sabah and Sarawak and previously it was reported that the authorities had also seized copies of The Herald publication after the ban was imposed in 2009.

    Besides the Christian community in Sabah and Sarawak and some in peninsular Malaysia, the Sikh community is also said to use the word ‘Allah’ in their prayers.

    The Home Ministry’s ban of the use of the word ‘Allah’, is made on the Bahasa Malaysia edition of the publication which was imposed in 2008 and 2009.

    The Herald had been in publication since 1994 without any problems.

    The ban was imposed following a national fatwa issued in 1986, which bars non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’ and other words used in Islam.

    With the filing today, the Federal Court will have to fix a date for the hearing of the review and the court has to empanel seven or more judges to hear the matter.

    It had been rare where a seven-member panel is formed and a review to be heard.

    After the review date is set, it is expected that the seven judges who had heard the case earlier will not be allowed to be in the panel.