KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — The High Court here today dismissed the Malaysian government’s application to stay its ruling that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers who are married to foreigners are entitled by operation of law to be citizens of Malaysia, pending disposal of an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir made the ruling after hearing submissions by parties in the proceedings conducted online.

Counsel Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar, when contacted, said the judge found that the mothers, who were the plaintiffs, have waited long enough and experienced hardship and they could not wait indefinitely for the appeal process to be over as it will prejudice the plaintiffs and cause them continuous hardship.

“Judge Akhtar in his decision ruled that the defendants’ position was contradictory. On one hand, they said that an amendment to the Federal Constitution (FC) to grant mothers this right must be first approved by the Conference of Rulers. This presupposed that the amendment was necessary.

“However, there is no question of an amendment because the court has already decided that the mothers have this right under the FC. Furthermore, if the amendment goes through, there is no question of retracting any documents issued to the mothers as directed by the court,” said Gurdial.

The defendants are the Malaysian government, Home Minister and the National Registration Department (NRD) director-general.

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