Citizenship by operation of law is automatically acquired at birth, requiring satisfaction of specific constitutional qualifications, including proof of lineage, which the plaintiff failed to provide, thus resulting in dismissal of application.

Introduction

[1] This was an application by the Plaintiff ("P") by way of Originating Summons (Enclosure 1) to move this Court for the following reliefs:

(a) declaration that P is a Malaysian citizen by operation of law under art 14(1)(b) read together with 14(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution (" FC ") or in the alternative by naturalization under art 19(1)(a), (b), (c) and 2(a), (b), (c) under Part III of the ;

(b) an order for the defendants to issue a new Certificate of Birth to P that endorses P's citizenship as Malaysian;

(c) an order for the defendants to issue a National Registration Identity Card to P as a Malaysian citizen; and

(d) an order for the defendants to update P's particulars as a citizen of Malaysia in the registers kept under s 4 of the National Registration Act 1959 and regs 4, 11 and 14 National Registration Regulations 1990 .

[2] The Defendants opposed P's application.

[3] The following are the cause papers filed by the parties:

(a) Originating Summons dated 30 August 2023 ("OS");

(b) Plaintiff's Affidavit in-Support affirmed on 14 August 2023 ("AIS");

(c) Defendant's Affidavit in-Reply affirmed on 21 November 2023 ("DAIR");

(d) Plaintiff's Affidavit in-Reply affirmed on 12 December 2023 ("PAIR")

[4] Both parties had also put in their respective written submissions before this Court.

[5] Having perused the cause papers, the written submissions, and after having heard arguments from both parties' learned counsel, this Court dismissed the OS with no order as to costs.

[6] Below is the Grounds of Judgment of this Court.

Salient Facts

[7] P was born on 27 January 1989 at 10.31am at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

[8] P was then issued with a Certificate of Birth bearing registration No. l026266 (exhibit IA-1 in AIR). The said ertificate and the particulars as stated therein are not disputed by the Defendants (see: paragraph 5, para 11.3 and exhibit 'ZM-3' in DAIR).

[9] A perusal of the said certificate reveals that P's biological parents are Nurmi Bt Mukhtar as the mother and Ali Kasim Bin Sarin as the father. Both of them (hereinafter to be referred to as "parents" or "biological parents") are recorded as of Indonesian descent.

[10] From another document produced by the Defendants titled as 'Daftar Kelahiran (Borang A)' (exhibit ZM-4 in DAIR), it is further revealed that P's father was recorded as having no identity documents while P's mother was categorized as an illegal immigrant.

[11] P claimed that he had attempted on numerous times to apply for Malaysia citizenship but were rejected at the counter even before P could filed the relevant documents. The Defendants however refuted this claim.

[12] Plaintiff further averred that he made his first application to obtain a temporary resident card or what is commonly known as MyKAS on 30 December 2008 and this was approved on 23 October 2012 as evident from exhibit ZM-1 DAIR. The validity of the said MyKas was for a period of 5 years.

[13] Subsequent to the above, the MyKAS Application Committee Panel on 12 December 2017 approved P's application for a replacement of his MyKAS as could be seen in exhibit ZM-2 DAIR. It is also stated therein that P's parents are not Malaysian citizens, are of Indonesian descent and there are no identification documents concerning them.

[14] The new MyKAS issued as replacement by the National Registration Department (NRD) is also valid for five (5) years and expired on 12 December 2022.

[15] P averred that he did try to apply for an extension of his MyKAS after the said expiry date but was rejected by the National Registration Department. This assertion was strictly denied by the Defendants