KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — The proposed law reforms to resolve the contentious unilateral religious conversion of children is expected to be tabled in the next Parliament session, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.

The transport minister also said that a Cabinet taskforce set up several months ago was making good progress on the issue of religious conversion of minors by a single parent.

“We are progressing well, we are actually asking the Bill to be amended,” the MCA president who is a member of the taskforce told reporters here.

“We want it actually as soon as possible, actually we hope it to be in May, this (parliamentary) session, but we couldn’t make it, so it should be the next session,” he later added.

When asked what had caused the delay for the tabling of the law reforms, Liow merely said the Attorney-General “is looking into all the details”.

On May 1, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said an informal Cabinet panel is looking into ways to resolve interfaith child custody conflicts between Muslim and non-Muslim parents, but needed time to seek the Malay Rulers’ views on some of the measures to be taken.

Those previously named to be part of the Cabinet taskforce are Liow, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.

Dr Subramaniam had said in January that the prime minister has agreed in principle to consider amending the law to prevent children from being converted to another religion without the consent of both parents.

The Cabinet decided in 2009 to bar the unilateral conversion of children, but the proposed legal amendments to enforce this were later shelved following the intervention from the Conference of Rulers hours before they could be tabled in Parliament.

Putrajaya had then proposed amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 to ensure that issues like child support and custody would be determined by the court in which the marriage had been registered in, regardless if one spouse embraces another religion later on.

On March 9, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri had said that the federal government’s draft for legal changes has been ready since 2009, but added that the consultation process to obtain feedback from the state Islamic councils was still ongoing.

In response to Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran’s May 19 parliamentary question on when laws banning unilateral conversion would be drafted, Jamil Khir said such laws are against the Federal Constitution’s Article 12(4).

According to Jamil Khir, this constitutional provision provided that a child’s religion can be determined by the mother or father.

He had cited the Federal Court’s 2007 interpretation of Article 12(4) in the case of R. Subashini, where it ruled that her Muslim convert husband had the right to convert their children to his faith without her consent.

This issue is however still before the Federal Court, which is set to hear an appeal in Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi’s case and decide whether the consent of both parents is required before a certificate of conversion to Islam can be issued to a child born in a civil marriage.