A 16-year-old teenager, whose Indonesian mother has been engaged in a legal battle since 2023, is now expected to obtain Malaysian citizenship.
Lawyer A Srimurugan, representing the mother, informed a three-member apex court bench chaired by Justice Rhodzariah Bujang that the Attorney-General’s Chambers would assist with the necessary documentation.
“As such, the applicant is withdrawing her motion to obtain leave to appeal,” he said.
Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly concurred with Srimurugan’s update.
The bench, which included Justices Che Ruzima Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah, subsequently struck out the motion.
Last year, the woman framed five legal questions to secure a hearing by the apex court on the merits of her appeal.
One key question concerned whether DNA testing of parents would violate their right to privacy under Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution.
In March last year, another apex court bench chaired by Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim granted the parties time to resolve the mother’s plight and explore the possibility of a settlement, given the complex nature of the case.
On Nov 29, 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed the woman’s appeal, citing doubts over the teenager’s paternity.
The bench, led by Justice Azizah Nawawi, held that the mother had failed to prove that her son was a citizen under Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution, read with Section 1(a) of the Second Schedule.
The law requires that either the boy’s mother or father be a Malaysian or permanent resident for him to qualify for citizenship.
The woman married in 2000 and had two sons, born in 2004 and 2010.
The younger boy applied for a MyKad at the age of 12, but his case was referred for investigation on grounds that he did not bear any physical resemblance to the Malaysian man listed as his father.
The man was said to have told officers from the national registration department (JPN) that the boy was not his biological child, but that a DNA test was unnecessary.
The Indonesian woman then commenced a lawsuit seeking a declaration that the teenager is a Malaysian citizen by operation of law, as well as an order compelling JPN to issue him a MyKad.
