The contempt

During a case mention 16 November 2010, my ex-wife put in an oral request before the Honourable Judge to be with the children for Hari Raya Aidil Adha. The Honourable Judge granted the request and ordered for the children to be surrendered to my ex-wife on 16 November 2010 at 3:30pm and to be returned on 17 November 2011 on or before 5:30pm.

To cut a long story short, after surrendering my children to her, my ex-wife refused to return them as ordered by the courts.

The courts subsequently issued an order for my ex-wife to return the children to me, to which she continued to totally disregarded.

On 16 December 2011, with the help of the police, the children were subsequently surrendered to me at 4:00am at IPD Shah Alam. Yes 4:00AM!

Whilst all this was happening, we put in an application to cite my ex-wife for contempt pursuant to Section 229(1) of the Enakmen Tatacara Mal Mahkamah Syairah (Negeri Selangor) 2003.

The hearing for the case was initially set for 5 July 2011, but was subsequently postponed to 8 September 2011.

On 8 September 2011, we informed the Honourable Judge that we were ready to proceed with the hearing. In response, and to our surprise, the Honourable Judge referred to a recent Syariah Court of Appeal case in Negeri Sembilan, where it was decided that only the courts have the power to commence contempt proceedings pursuant to the equivalent of Section 229(1) of the Enakmen Tatacara Mal Mahkamah Syairah (Negeri Selangor) 2003.

This has a direct impact on all ongoing contempt proceedings... including the one that I have just filed.

As the Syariah Court of Appeal case was relatively new, the Honourable Judge ordered that both lawyers are to study the case and present to the Honourable Judge on 25 October 2011 on whether the contempt proceedings can continue.