High Court judge Norliza Othman said the 35-year-old plaintiff failed to meet the constitutional requirements for automatic citizenship despite being born in Pahang.KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed a woman's bid to be recognised as a Malaysian citizen by operation of law, ruling that her citizenship status follows that of her Indonesian mother because she was born out of wedlock.Justice Norliza Othman said the 35-year-old plaintiff failed to meet the constitutional requirements for automatic citizenship despite being born in Pahang.The judge held that the plaintiff could not rely on the citizenship status of her biological father, a Malaysian permanent resident, as there was no evidence that her parents were legally married at the time of her birth."As an illegitimate child, the plaintiff's citizenship follows that of her biological mother, who is an Indonesian citizen," Norliza said in her grounds of judgment released recently.She ruled that the plaintiff was not a Malaysian citizen by operation of law and was not entitled to the declarations and orders sought.The plaintiff had filed the suit against the director-general of the national registration department (JPN), the home minister and the government after discovering in 2022 that her birth certificate stated she was a "non-citizen", despite having been issued a blue MyKad when she was 14.She sought declarations that she was a Malaysian citizen by operation of law, that the entry on her birth certificate was unlawful, and an order compelling JPN to issue a new birth certificate recognising her as a citizen.She argued that she qualified for citizenship under Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution as she was born in Malaysia and had remained stateless.Alternatively, she claimed she was entitled to citizenship because her biological father was a permanent resident when she was born.However, the government argued that the plaintiff was born out of wedlock and that Section 17 of Part III of the Second Schedule to the Federal Constitution applied, meaning the citizenship of an illegitimate child was determined by reference to the mother’s nationality.The government also maintained that she was not stateless as Indonesian law recognised children born out of wedlock to Indonesian mothers as Indonesian citizens.No proof of statelessnessNorliza found that while the plaintiff had satisfied the requ…
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