The Federal Court has told a man seeking to remove the word ‘Islam’ from his identity card to apply for a court declaration that he is not a Muslim.

Only then, Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria said today, should he pursue the matter with the National Registration Department (NRD).

The top judge said this in dismissing Mohd Sharif Abdullah’s application for leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal decision in October last year.

Sharif was seeking an order to compel the NRD to remove the word ‘Islam’ from his identity card, on grounds that he was never converted to the religion from his birth religion, Hinduism.

The respondents are the NRD director-general, and the home minister.

However, Justice Arifin said this is not the correct procedure to use.There are no orders made on cost.

According to the facts of the case presented today, the 35-year-old Sharif was born as Mahendran Ganesan to Hindu parents.

The couple later divorced, and his mother remarried to a Muslim. When Sharif turned 12 after the re-marriage, he was registered as a Muslim when applying for his identity card.

Senior federal counsel Suzanna Attan told the court that the NRD had issued Sharif’s identity card stating his religion as Islam, on basis of the registration form submitted by his mother in which the box next to the word ‘Islam’ is checked.

“Based on this information, the identity card issued stated ‘Islam’,” she said.

However, when asked, she conceded that there was no certificate of conversion.

Arifin noted that this made Sharif’s case different from the conversion cases that the court has previously heard.

“The registration does not make him a Muslim […] When there is a conversion, it is different. In the previous cases, there was a conversion.

“But here, there is none,” he said.

Speaking to reporters later, Sharif’s counsel Robin Lim said he would seek further instructions on the matter.