Kelantan Assembly Postponed to Finalise Shariah Law Amendments

PETALING JAYA, July 26 — The Kelantan State Legislative Assembly’s four-day sitting scheduled to begin tomorrow has been postponed to allow the state government time to finalise proposed amendments to its shariah criminal code.

Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Abdullah confirmed that the postponement was granted following an official request by the state administration, with the sitting now rescheduled to take place from August 11 to 13.

“The government requested the postponement to finalise (amendments) to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019,” Amar was quoted as saying.

Earlier this month, Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nassuruddin Daud announced that the state government intended to table amendments involving 16 provisions within the enactment at the next assembly sitting, noting that the proposed legislative drafts had already received executive clearance from the state executive council.

The legislative revisions follow a landmark 8-1 majority decision by the Federal Court on February 9, 2024, which struck down 16 provisions of the Kelantan enactment after declaring them unconstitutional.

The apex court ruled that the Kelantan assembly lacked the constitutional jurisdiction to pass the provisions, as the offences fell within Parliament’s exclusive authority to legislate federal criminal law.

The constitutional challenge against the state code was initiated by Kelantan-born lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman.

-NMT