The Federal Court has set next Thursday (Nov 22) to deliver its verdict on an appeal by the National Registration Department (NRD) and two others, on whether a Muslim child conceived out of wedlock could bear his or her father's surname instead of a "bin Abdullah".

Lawyer Nizam Bashir, representing the couple and their child, said he was informed of the decision on Tuesday.

A bench of three judges who will deliver the verdict on Thursday will comprise of Court of Appeal president Ahmad Ma'arop, and Federal Court judges Justice Balia Yusof Wahi and Justice Aziah Ali.

The appeal was heard in February by a five-member bench led by the then chief justice Md Raus Sharif, but the court has reserved judgment.

Raus has since left the judiciary in July while the other judge, Hasan Lah had retired.

On Oct 18, Chief Justice Richard Malanjum, presiding a seven-man bench, decided not to rehear afresh the appeal, but for the remaining three judges from the initial Federal Court panel to proceed straight to deliver the decision.

Malanjum said there were enough judges remaining in the previous panel which had heard and reserved the decision in the appeal.

On May 25, last year, the Court of Appeal had ruled in favour of the couple and their child who filed a judicial review to compel the NRD director-general to replace their child's surname ‘Abdullah’ with the name of the child's father in the birth certificate.

In last year's Court of Appeal landmark judgment, the court in allowing the eight-year-old boy and his family's appeal, said the NRD was only confined to determining whether the father had fulfilled the requirements under Section 13A(2) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957, and that a 2003 National Fatwa Council edict on the matter did not have the force of law for the NRD to impose bin Abdullah on the name.

The Federal Court's decision, when delivered, would not only affect the child in this case, but would also be binding on Muslim children in a similar situation.

This includes 20 other couples whose children were deemed to be born out of wedlock and hence carry the surnames 'bin Abdullah' or 'binti Abdullah' – which some argue would mean that the children would have to carry the stigma of illegitimate birth for the rest of their lives.