The Court of Appeal has set an early date to hear S Kaliammal's application to review the Kuala Lumpur High Court's ruling on her late husband's religious status.

According to her counsel M Manoharan, the lawyers were informed yesterday that the registrar of the appellate court tendered a notice fixing Feb 9 for all parties to appear before the court for case management.

Manoharan, who said the notice was faxed yesterday, described it as a pleasant surprise considering that a certificate of urgency was not submitted on the application filed less than five days ago.

"The court has taken judicial notice that this is a public-interest matter (to which) they have given importance.

"I'm happy to have received the notice, and I must thank the Court of Appeal for fixing an early case management date," he said when contacted.

'Confrontational' apprroach

Controversy followed the death of former army commando M Moorty when a tussle erupted between his widow and Islamic religious authorities.

Kaliammal claimed that her husband was a practising Hindu while the former said he had converted and hence should be buried as a Muslim.

The situation heightened when the Syariah Court ruled - following an ex-parte application - that Moorthy had died a Muslim.

Following this, Kaliammal turned to the High Court but the court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over syariah matters.

This sparked widespread concern over the rights of non-Muslims, leading a coalition of Hindu groups to proclaim that it will bring the issue to an international forum .

Meanwhile, the Allied Coordinating Committee of Islamic NGOs (Accin), in a statement yesterday, questioned the need to take the issue of religious freedom here to an international arena.

It also expressed dissatisfaction with the recent initiatives taken by certain groups concerning this issue, which it claimed, "were contrary to the spirit of peaceful and harmonious coexistence necessary in a multi-religious nation like Malaysia".

"The manner adopted was confrontational and foreign to our culture," it added.