KUALA LUMPUR: A Bumiputera Christian has been allowed to challenge the Home Ministry’s decision to seize her eight compact discs on religion containing the word ‘Allah.’ Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, 28, will now file an application for judicial review following the court's ruling to grant her leave to seek three forms of relief on Monday.

She is applying to get an order of certiorari to quash the ministry’s decision to seize the CDs and wants an order of mandamus directing its minister to return the CDs to her. She is also seeking a declaration that she has a legitimate expectation to exercise the right to use the word ‘Allah’ and continue to have access to own and import such published material.

Ireland, a Melanau from Sarawak, claimed that she uses the word ‘Allah’ in her prayers, worship and religious education. She claimed that both Bahasa Malaysia and the Bahasa Indonesia ALKITAB uses the word ‘Allah’. She claimed that she received a letter dated July 7 last year from the ministry outlining the reasons for the confiscation, including that it was a threat to security, that it used prohibited words and that it was a breach of the religious guidelines of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia over the use of prohibited words.

Earlier, High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) judge Justice Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin made the order in chambers after hearing submissions from her counsel, Annou Xavier and Henry Teh, and senior federal counsel Suzanna Atan, representing the ministry and the government who were named as respondents. The judge, however, rejected an application for a stay against the minister's order.

Speaking to reporters later, Suzana said she has raised a preliminary objection that the application was filed out of the given time and that several declarations that the applicant were seeking were not related to the subject matter. “The judge ordered them to file a further affidavit to show that they have actually received the letter from the ministry on July 12, last year as contended by them,” added Suzana.

Ireland had filed the application on Aug 20 last year to quash the Home Ministry’s decision to confiscate the CDs under Section 9(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. She had disembarked at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang on May 11 last year, upon her return from Indonesia, when the CDs were confiscated from her.

She had named the Home Minister and the Government as respondents. Herald Malaysia