PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today held that a Selangor syariah law provision that can jail people for engaging in unnatural sex is invalid as the state legislature has no power to enact such laws.
The ruling was made after the top court allowed a 36-year-old man’s legal bid to annul Section 28 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor Enactment) 1995.
The Muslim man, whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons, had filed the legal action by way of a petition to declare the law provision invalid following his arrest for attempting gay sex, three years ago.
In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired a nine-member panel, held that Section 28, which makes it an offence to engage in unnatural sex, is “inconsistent” with the Federal Constitution and therefore void.
She said the primary power of legislation in criminal law resides in Parliament.
“As such, it is our view that Section 28 was enacted in contravention of Item 1 of the State List which stipulates that the State Legislatures have no power to make law ‘in regard to matters included in the Federal List’.
“To that extent, Section 28 is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution and is therefore void,” she said in her judgement that was delivered through a virtual proceeding today.-NST