Parliament has the legislative power to regulate Islamic Medicine and Malay Traditional Medicine under the Federal List, as these matters fall within health and medicine.

JUDGMENT

Mohd Zawawi Salleh FCJ:

The Application

[1] The applicant, a practitioner of Islamic Medicine, by way of Notice of Motion dated 4 November 2021 (encl 1), supported by Affidavit In Support (encl 2), seeks leave to commence proceedings against the respondents, the Health Ministry and the Federal Government, in the Federal Court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction for the following declaratory reliefs:

"1. Satu kebenaran Mahkamah ini bagi memohon deklarasi bahawa Parliamen tiada kuasa untuk membuat Akta Perubatan Tradisional dan Komplimentari 2016 (Akta 775) setakat mana Akta 775 tersebut menyentuh dan mengawal selia hal-hal yang berkaitan:

a) Pengubatan Islam; dan

b) Perubatan Tradisional Melayu,

oleh kerana kedua-duanya adalah di bawah bidang kuasa eksklusif negeri-negeri di bawah Jadual 9, Item 1 (Senarai Negeri) Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan oleh yang demikian, Akta 775 tersebut adalah terbatal dan tidak sah setakat mana Akta 775 itu menyentuh dan mengawal selia hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan pengubatan Islam dan perubatan Tradisional Melayu.

2. Apa-apa perintah interlokutori atau arahan (direction) yang adil dan suai manfaat termasuk perintah berkaitan apa- apa pindaan atau pembetulan atau tambahan yang perlu kepada apa-apa terma permohonan ini termasuk pindaan atau pembetulan atau tambahan yang perlu kepada ayat, format atau bentuk dalam tindakan ini atau apa-apa perintah atau arahan yang membenarkan sesuatu permohonan dibuat secara lisan bagi memastikan merit kes ini dapat diputuskan secara lancar untuk memenuhi kehendak keadilan.

3. Tiada perintah untuk kos."

[Emphasis Added]

[2] In essence, the applicant seeks a declaration that Parliament has no power and/or is not competent to enact any provisions that regulate matters relating to Islamic Medicine and Malay Traditional Medicine in the Act 775 ("the Act"). The applicant asserts that both of these matters are within the purview of the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Legislative Assembly under Item 1 of the State List, Ninth Schedule to the Federal Constitution (" FC ") and therefore any provisions under the Act on Islamic Medicine and Malay Traditional Medicine are null and void.

[3] At the outset, it must be clarified that "Islamic Medicine" in this application refers to the healing method based on the Quran and Hadith through the recitation of the Quran, seeking of refuge, remembrance and supplication that is used as a means of treating sickness and other problems, by reciting verses of the Quran or by using the prayers in Arabic or in the language the meaning is understood (Ruqyah). It does not refer to the body of medical knowledge and practice which began in the early Islamic period and which is being currently practiced by Muslim physicians in Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

Parties' Competing Submissions

The Applicant's Submission

[4] Stripped to the bare bones, the applicant's contentions are as follows:

(i) Islamic Medicine is part of religious worship and Parliament has no power and/or is not competent to enact any provisions involving Islamic laws as per Act 775. The State Islamic Religious Council and the Sultan as the head of the religion of Islam are the parties that have exclusive power concerning matters on Islamic Medicine;

(ii) the Act has restrained the right of the applicant in practicing his Islamic Medicine which contains the recitations of certain Quranic verses as well as other incantations and invocations according to the Prophetic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Syariah laws, and common practice of Malay Traditional Medicine;

(iii) the matters relating to Islamic laws and Malay custom are exclusively under the authority, prerogative, and privilege of the Malay Sultans as guaranteed by art 38(4) of the FC ;

(iv) the Act is invalid as it is not within the power of Parliament to enact any provisions that regulate any guidelines for the Islamic Medicine and Malay Traditional practitioner and to regulate the aspects of treatment for Is