JUDGMENT

Balia Yusof Wahi JCA:

Background

[1] Pathmanathan (husband) and Indira Ghandi (wife) were married on 10 April 1993. The marriage was registered under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 ("the Act"). There were three children of the marriage, Tevi Darsiny, aged 12, Karan Dinish, aged 11 and the youngest, Prasana Diksa, who was 11 months old at the time of filing of the wife's application for judicial review.

[2] On 11 March 2009, the husband converted to Islam and on 8 April 2009, he obtained an ex parte interim custody order for all the three children. He later obtained a permanent custody order from the Syariah Court on 29 September 2009.

[3] At the time of the husband's conversion, the two elder children were residing with the wife while the youngest child was with the husband.

[4] Sometime in April 2009, the wife received documents from the husband showing that her three children had been converted to Islam on 2 April 2009 and that the Pengarah Jabatan Agama Islam Perak had issued three certificates of conversion to Islam on her three children. The documents also showed that the Registrar of Muallaf had registered the children as Muslims.

[5] Feeling dist