KUALA LUMPUR: A 37-year-old man remains stateless after the High Court in Penang denied him citizenship due to his inability to ascertain his biological parents' nationality.
Judge Anand Ponnudurai dismissed the man's application seeking the court's intervention to confer citizenship status pursuant to Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution on Monday.
The plaintiff was born on June 8, 1986, before being handed over to his adoptive father at the age of four months. There were no accompanying personal documents identifying the plaintiff or his biological mother.
On July 9, 1992, the adoptive father applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) to conduct a search on the plaintiff's birth certificate.
However, he was informed that no information in relation to the plaintiff could be obtained.
On June 17, 2010, NRD approved the man's late registration of birth and a birth certificate was issued in which his citizenship status is classified as 'bukan warganegara' (non-citizen).
The crux of the plaintiff's contentions in support of his citizenship application was that he was born in Malaysia after Malaysia Day, he has been a permanent resident and has never left its shores, and his biological mother was in all likelihood a Malaysian citizen.
The plaintiff claimed that he was an abandoned child and is therefore entitled to be considered a citizen by operation of law.
However, the court disagreed.
In his judgment, Anand said the plaintiff failed to prove that his biological parents were Malaysian citizens or permanent residents at the time of his birth.
"It cannot be disputed that the identity of the parents is unknown.
"Neither the adoptive father nor other witnesses are able to provide any cogent evidence to establish that the plaintiff's biological mother or father is either a Malaysian citizen or a permanent resident.
"In my view, the details of the biological mother of the plaintiff are indeed sparse, to say the least.
"In the various statutory declarations, interview notes as well as police report lodged, I note that no information was provided in relation to the biological mother save for the fact that she was an Indian about 18 or 19 years of age.
"I find that the plaintiff has failed to discharge the burden of establishing that either biological parent is a Malaysian citizen or permanent resident," he said.
The court said it was also impossible for the plaintiff to be conferred a citizenship based on lineage as the status of his parents are unknown.
The court also disagreed with the plaintiff's contention to be listed as an abandoned child or a 'newborn child found exposed'.
