Friday, 23 September 2011

Hadhanah trial delayed again

Yesterday, my hadhanah or child custody trial at Mahkamah Tinggi Syariah Shah Alam was supposed to resume after no less than 3 postponements since December 2010.

As expected, my ex-wife's lawyers (3 of them!) made a meal of the Honourable Judge's decision at Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Petaling Jaya on 14 September 2011 to deny my Bantahan Awal.

After several rounds of exchanges between the lawyers from both sides, the Honourable Judge concluded that he will make a decision on the matter at the end of October 2011.

Yet another postponement...

Keputusan Bantahan Awal

Last week, 14 September 2011 was the "tarikh keputusan" for my preliminary objection or "Bantahan Awal" at Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Petaling Jaya.

As previously mentioned, on 21 March 2011 my ex-wife filed an application at Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Petaling Jaya to invalidate my previous marriage with her.

Her application is based on fact that she purportedly "suddenly became aware" that she is an illegitimate child, hence her father cannot be the wali for our marriage. Her ultimate aim is to prejudice my child custody and matrimonial asset claims.

I filed in my Bantahan Awal on 21 June 2011.

On 14 September 2011, the Honourable Judge rejected my Bantahan Awal on grounds that the issue put forth by my ex-wife is a serious one that has material consequences on the issue of lineage and inheritance. Therfore the matter should be tried. Both parties were ordered to complete their pleadings and to proceed with a full trial.

After the event, I learned that the case had attracted the interest of the press. Even the members of staff at the courts were following the case. Whilst walking out of the court, I noticed the presence of reporter(s) and a cameraman. My ex-wife's legal counsel alerted her, and as a result, she refused to step out from the court building for almost an hour. Her unsavoury advisor even tried to chase the cameraman away.

In the end, she came out with a newspaper covering her face. As the Malays say "tahu pun malu"!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

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.