Attorney-General Tommy Thomas has yet to look at the five case files of stateless children whereas Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was on long medical leave, has yet to give instructions on the case.

This was the reason cited by senior federal counsel Suzana Atan in seeking an adjournment to the hearing of the case before a nine-member Federal Court bench.

This is the fifth adjournment that has been sought by the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It was named as the respondent in the appeal, by the army of lawyers representing the five children and their families who wanted the case to proceed today.

In all the stateless children cases, the National Registration Department, the Home Ministry and government are named as respondents after the parents failed to get citizenship for their children.

Suzana said they are only seeking a six-week adjournment to get instructions on the matter.

This led to Chief Justice Richard Malanjum to ask when the new AG was appointed following the revelation that the latter had yet to look at the case files.

Justice Malanjum warned the chambers that this would be the final adjournment after the family members lawyer led by senior lawyer Cyrus Das said the case should be expedited as the children between eight and 18 years of age were not given MyKads and hence they could not apply to open bank accounts, have driving licences or passports and this was affecting their academic lives.

After a short break, Justice Malanjum fixed Oct 25 as the hearing of the appeal and warned the chambers again this was the final postponement.

"Rain or shine, these cases will go on," he warned.

The last time the case was fixed on June 4 and then adjourned again on July 23 and 24, following case management, after it was earlier fixed on March 6.

The court also agreed to issue a gag order that the children and parents are not to be named by the media.

Besides Justice Malanjum, the others on the bench were Court of Appeal president Justice Ahmad Maarop, Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim, Federal Court judges Justices Azahar Mohamed, Aziah Ali, Alizatul, Khair Osman, Rohana Yusof, and Mohd Zawawi Mohd Salleh and Court of Appeal judge Umi Kalthum Abd Majid.

Das along with Raymond Mah has two cases, while former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram, along with lawyers N Surendran and Latheefa Koya have two while lawyer Ranee Sreedharan, appears for one couple who was successful in their citizenship bid for their eldest child after the appellate court allowed their appeal.

The apex court will decide on several questions of law that would decide the outcome of future stateless children cases which allegedly amount to hundreds of thousands. These include: 

  • Whether a child who was born in Malaysia and did not acquire citizenship of any other country, within one year from his birth date, is a citizen of Malaysia by the operation of law pursuant to Article 14(1)(b) and Section 1(a) and 1(e) and Section 2(3) of Part II of Second Schedule.
  • Whether the words “not born a citizen of any country” in Part II Section 1(e) of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution requires a child to prove the identity of his or her biological parents and that they are not foreign citizens or whether, pursuant to Part II Section 2(3) of the Second Schedule, it is sufficient for the child to prove that he/she does not require citizenship.