Birth in Malaysia not enough for citizenship, rules appeals court

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has ruled that a child whose biological parents are unknown cannot automatically acquire Malaysian citizenship simply by being born in Malaysia, without evidence ruling out any foreign citizenship.

Delivering a unanimous decision, Justice Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz said a citizenship claim under the Federal Constitution still requires satisfying the jus sanguinis requirement — proof tied to lineage.

"Where the biological parents and their citizenship status cannot be identified, that requirement remains unproven," — Justice Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz

The ruling allowed the government's appeal and overturned a High Court decision that had declared the child, identified as LWO, a Malaysian citizen by operation of law. The appeal was heard alongside Justices Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Faizah Jamaludin.

Background of the case

LWO was born in Klang in 2009 and initially registered as the child of a Malaysian couple, identified as LYK and FCH, on which basis his birth certificate listed him as a Malaysian citizen.

When LWO applied for a MyKad at age 12, the National Registration Department (JPN) found the couple were not his biological parents and had submitted false information at registration. The adoptive father later pleaded guilty over the false registration and was fined RM3,000.

JPN subsequently amended the birth register, issuing a new certificate listing the parents as "Maklumat Tidak Diperolehi" (information not available) and LWO's status as "Bukan Warganegara" (non-citizen). The couple later obtained a formal adoption order and a new birth certificate naming them as adoptive parents, but LWO's citizenship status did not change. They then sought — and the High Court granted — declarations that LWO was a Malaysian citizen under Article 14(1)(b) and Section 1(e), Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

The Court of Appeal's reasoning

The Court of Appeal held that a claim under Section 1(e) must satisfy both birth within the federation (jus soli) and lineage (jus sanguinis) — meaning proof the person was not born a citizen of another country. Hayatul said that while LWO was born in Malaysia after Malaysia Day, the respondents had failed to establish the second requirement.

Citizenship by lineage depends on the biological parents' own citizenship status, she said, and without evidence identifying them, there was no way to determine whether LWO had acquired another country's citizenship through them — with the burden of proving he "was not born a citizen of any country" resting on the respondents.

The court also dismissed the respondents' reliance on newspaper advertisements seeking the biological parents, noting they carried little evidential weight since they ran 14 years after LWO's birth and only after JPN had already uncovered the case's circumstances. Hayatul further held that LWO's long residence and education in Malaysia were legally irrelevant, since they stemmed from a birth certificate issued on false information.

Source: Free Malaysia Today