KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — Questions remain on whether the Ipoh High Court’s decision against the unilateral conversion of M. Indira Ghandi’s children to Islam would solve the jurisdiction overlap of the civil and syariah courts but to Malaysia’s biggest umbrella group representing non-Muslims, it is “a big step forward”.

Jagir Singh (picture), the new president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), said the ruling which declared the conversion as “unconstitutional” could set a precedent for future cases in which the civil court would supersede its syariah counterparts in conversions involving non-Muslims.

“We welcome the judgment. It is a very big step forward. With the court ruling, it sets a good precedent because non-Muslims don't have locus standi (legal standing) in the syariah court,” Jagir, a lawyer by training, said in a brief interview with The Malay Mail Online.

In a landmark decision yesterday, the High Court quashed the conversion certificates of Indira’s three children following a protracted legal battle with her husband, Muslim convert Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, who converted their children to Islam four years ago without the former’s consent.

“I am extremely happy that we won. It has been a much-awaited verdict,” Indira, a kindergarten teacher, told The Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.

The ruling follows recent uproar and protest against Putrajaya’s move to amend federal laws that would allow unilateral conversion of minors to Islam. Rights group and opposition leaders argued that the amendments were against the Constitution which provides for consent of both parents for conversions.

Caving in to public pressure, the Najib administration eventually withdrew the Bills.

Jagir noted that the conversion issue had dragged on for 20 years with the courts often siding the Muslim parent.

But yesterday’s ruling, he said, could provide some legal recourse for non-Muslim parents.

“The council has long fought for this, that the civil courts, and not the syariah, be given the power to decide on conversions for non-Muslims,” he said.

But Edmund Bon, human rights lawyer and founder of MyConsti, said although the Indira ruling could solve the jurisdiction overlap, the Federal Constitution must be amended to ensure clarity so that for future cases, any conversions must have the consent of both parents.

The contention comes followed confusion over the term “parent”. In the Bahasa Malaysia translation of the Constitution, it says either the father or mother have the right to convert their children although the “parent” was meant to described both the mother and father.

“For clarity Parliament needs to amend the constitution to make it watertight,” Bon told The Malay Mail Online via a text message.

Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversions have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over the perceived dominance of Islam in the country.

Lawyers and rights groups agreed that Indira’s historic win yesterday marks a major milestone in Malaysia’s inter-religious relations, which have suffered greatly over the years due to inconsistent policies and overlaps in legal jurisdictions.

The issue has also been highly politicised due to Malaysia’s Muslim-majority population.