KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Former Johor Sultanah Tunku Zanariah Tunku Ahmad today applied to strike out a court order validating a divorce from the late Sultan Iskandar Ismail that she insisted never took place.

In an application to the Johor Syariah Court, Tunku Zanariah claimed that a subordinate court had illegally authenticated the divorce eight months after the then-Sultan’s death in 2010 and applied it retroactively to 2009, news portal Malaysiakini reported.

Her filing today stated that she had received documents from the state authorities and religious department that she alleged were defamatory. 

These included a letter from former mentri besar Datuk Ghani Othman stating that the state fatwa council has recognised the divorce; an order by the Johor Lower Syariah Court confirming the divorce; and a certificate stating that the divorce was effective January of 2009.

The former Sultanah said she then sought counsel from lawyers to challenge the ruling, adding that they told her order by the lower syariah court’s order was invalid as evidence from Ghani and a statutory declaration by Johor Royal Committee chairperson Tengku Osman Tunku Temenggong Ahmad was not admissible as they were not party to the marriage.

“A person who passed away on January 22, 2010 does not have the legal capacity to initiate any court proceeding unless it is for the administration of its estate. 

“Furthermore, during his lifetime the Sultan had not filed any divorce proceeding at any Johor Syariah court against me. He had not made an order or asked anyone to represent him in any divorce proceeding,” Tunku Zanariah said in her affidavit reproduced by Malaysiakini.

She further alleged that she was denied her right to be party to any such proceedings, and that the entire affair was kept from her knowledge until the delivery of the documents some three years after the purported event took place.

Tunku Zanariah married Sultan Ismail in 1961 and the two have six children from the marriage. The late Sultan was also the eighth Yang diPertuan Agong from 1984 to 1989, and she was the Raja Permaisuri Agong at the same time. 

The present Sultan is her stepson.

The Syariah Court later fixed January 21 to hear the application.