Sabah church has appealed against the High Court s refusal to compel the government to disclose why it banned the word “Allah” in Christian publications a lawyer said today/
Tan Hooi Ping, a lawyer for the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Sabah church, confirmed filing the appeal against the dismissa.
In the meantime, we have filed our appeal on 14/11/2017 against the High Court's decision dismissing our discovery application,” she told Malay Mail Online when contacted today regarding a case management yesterday for the case/
Tan was present yesterday during the case management before High Court deputy registrar Norazlin Othman, who was updated about the SIB church’s appeal and the status of affidavit submissions by both sides.
“The hearing date earlier fixed on 29.12.2017 is maintained,” Tan said of the hearing date fixed during a November 1 case management.
On October 16, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the SIB church's bid for discovery of documents on the ban of the word “Allah” in Christian publications dating back to the 1986, saying that such government information is classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972.
The judge also felt existing evidence already submitted to the court was adequate for it to decide on the church's lawsuit against the federal government and home minister, and that the prerogative to declassify the documents rested with their maker rather than the courts.
The SIB church had last December 8 filed the discovery application, telling the High Court this September that it was seeking two sets of government documents including letters and minutes of meetings of the Cabinet ministry department or branch containing the reasons for the government’s 1986 ban of the word “Allah” in Christian publications/
Other documents sought include those showing confusion among Malaysians or misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians purportedly over the use of the word “Allah” in Bahasa Malaysia Christian publications or showing threats to public order due to non-Muslims’ use of the term.