IPOH: A five-year-old girl born in the country to a Malaysian father and Chinese national mother was successfully granted Malaysian citizenship today.
This was after High Court here allowed the former stateless child’s application for the National Registration Department to re-register her as a Malaysian citizen.
Judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed ruled that the child had met conditions to qualify her as a citizen according to Article 14 1(b) of the Federal Constitution in which her father is a Malaysian citizen, and that she was born in Malaysia and not born a citizen of any other country.
The girl’s father had filed an originating summons in December 2019 after his child’s status was listed as non-Malaysian.
The application sought the chief registrar for births and deaths to re-register the child as a Malaysian citizen and to name her 38-year-old father and her mother, aged 39 as her biological parents.
The originating summons cited the child’s right to being awarded Malaysian citizenship by operation of law under Article 14 1(b) of the Federal Constitution.
A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test report issued by the Chemistry Department had also stated that the father was her biological father.
The parents were represented by lawyers Ong Yu Shin, Ooi Keng Liang and Datuk Nicholas Kow.
Ong, when met by reporters later, said the judge had found that the marital status of the parents when the child was born was irrelevant to the case.
“This is because the child was born in Ipoh on June 24, 2016 and was not the holder of any foreign passport or a citizen of any other country. — Bernama
