Lower courts must follow apex court precedents, says CJ
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat elaborated on the Federal Court's 40-page judgment which held that a fatwa could not be imposed on an organisation like Sisters in Islam as such entities cannot 'profess' a religion.
PUTRAJAYA : Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat has reminded judges in the lower courts that they must adhere to legal precedents set by the Federal Court unless overruled by a subsequent decision from the same court.
'These precedents are binding, and failure to follow them is an affront to the administration of our justice system,' she said in a majority judgment delivered yesterday.
The judgment held that a fatwa could not be imposed on an organisation like Sisters in Islam (SIS) as such entities cannot 'profess' a religion.
Women's rights group SIS yesterday succeeded in its appeal to the Federal Court to quash a 2014 fatwa issued against it by the Selangor religious authorities.
SIS had sought to quash a 2014 fatwa by the Selangor Islamic religious council (Mais) that it had deviated from the teachings of Islam by purportedly subscribing to 'liberalism' and 'religious pluralism'.
In allowing SIS's appeal, Tengku Maimun said, the majority accepted the appellants' argument that the Court of Appeal had failed to apply the principle of stare decisis by wrongly attempting to distinguish the case from an earlier decision in SIS Forum (1) without any sound legal basis.
Three years ago, a nine-member Federal Court bench led by Tengku Maimun unanimously ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Selangor legislative assembly to grant judicial review powers to the state's shariah high court.
In that ruling, the bench also reaffirmed a 1998 apex court decision (Kesultanan Pahang v Sathask Realty Sdn Bhd) which held that corporations cannot profess a religion.
'Consistent with our guidance to the lower courts, we are fully inclined to uphold stare decisis and to follow the precedent established in SIS Forum (1) and Kesultanan Pahang,' she said in the 40-page judgment.
Two years ago, the Court of Appeal dismissed SIS's challenge to the fatwa, which claimed that the women's group espoused liberalism and religious pluralism and had deviated from Islamic teachings.
In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court concluded that the legal principle established in SIS Forum (1) was merely obiter dicta – a passing judicial remark not binding as precedent.
However, Tengku Maimun refuted this, saying that the Federal Court's reasoning in SIS Forum (1) was not obiter dicta, but formed a core part of the court's legal reasoning.
The court had held that Section 66A of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003 was unconstitutional.
She further noted that the earlier nine-member bench had ruled that shariah courts cannot conceptually exercise judicial review over artificial persons, such as corporate entities, even if they identify with Islam.
Tengku Maimun, Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Justice Nallini Pathmanathan formed the majority in yesterday's ruling while Justice Abu Bakar Jais dissented.
SIS, a company limited by guarantee and incorporated under the Companies Act 1965, argued that the fatwa was unconstitutional and could not be applied to a corporate entity governed by civil law.
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