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KUALA LUMPUR: The Government is currently amending three laws relating to religious conversion and aims to table the amendments in the current Parliament session, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat.

The Government took conversion issues seriously and had set up a committee comprising several ministers to address them, he said.

However, even prior to the setting up of this committee, draft amendments to the three laws were prepared in 2007, he said.

The laws that would be amended are the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, the Administration of Islamic (Federal Territories) Islamic Law 1993 and the Islamic Family (Federal Territories) Law1984.

The amendments cover the dissolution of marriage, children’s rights, maintenance for children and ex-wives, and asset distribution, said Nazri.

The Attorney-General had given a briefing on the proposed amendments to the committee on May 5, he said, responding to M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) who had asked about the Cabinet’s promise to set up a committee to look into religious conversion issues.

The Cabinet’s order on April 23 on conversions has no bite under the law and the order was made for the sake of its political agenda, Kulasegaran had alleged.

Nazri said the Cabinet’s order must be in line with the Federal Constitution and other laws.

On the issue of determining the religion of children below 18 when one of the parents converts to another religion, he said the Cabinet had agreed that it must be made in accordance with Clause (4) Article 12 of the Constitution.

In the case of R. Subashini versus T. Saravanan last year, the Federal Court had interpreted the word “parent” in the law as singular and not plural and as such, the converting parent had the right to determine the religion of their children below 18, he said.