Court rejects stateless man’s bid for citizenship through Malaysian father

The High Court in Kota Bharu has dismissed a man's bid to secure Malaysian citizenship for his stateless son, despite DNA evidence confirming their biological relationship. Judicial Commissioner Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman ruled that the child, born in Thailand to a Malaysian father and Thai mother in 2006, does not qualify for citizenship by operation of law as his parents could not prove they were legally married at the time of his birth.

The court found that citizenship by operation of law requires the fulfillment of the requisite conditions at the time of birth, and that Section 17 of Part III of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution applies to the child, who was treated as having been born out of wedlock. As such, the child's citizenship status must be determined by reference to his Thai mother's nationality, rather than his Malaysian biological father.

The court dismissed the application and ordered the father and son to pay the government RM4,000 in costs.

Brief written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.