The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court ruling affirming that a Muslim woman is legally entitled to inherit from her late non-Muslim father’s estate.
A three-member panel led by Justice Supang Lian ruled that neither the Distribution Act nor the Small Estates (Distribution) Act prevents Amira Umaira Teng Abdullah from inheriting a share of her biological father’s estate.
The panel, which also comprised Justices Amarjeet Singh and Shahnaz Sulaiman, dismissed the appeal and ordered Amira’s mother, Wee Ku Wing, to pay RM30,000 in legal costs.
According to court documents, Amira, the fourth of seven siblings, converted to Islam and married a Muslim man in 2008. Her father, Teng Guan Chai, passed away in 2020.
Following his death, Wee applied to the Kelantan Land and Mines Office to distribute the estate equally among the heirs. However, she omitted Amira’s name from the list of beneficiaries.
After learning of the application, Amira filed a judicial review in the High Court, seeking to quash both the estate distribution order and her mother’s appointment as the estate administrator.
The High Court ruled in her favour, holding that Parliament had never intended to exclude children who convert to another religion from inheriting their parents’ estates when enacting the Distribution Act.
The court further held that the law does not distinguish between children based on their religion when determining entitlement to an inheritance.
Amira was represented by lawyers Adib Saat and Zulhafiz Zahid, while Wee was represented by lawyer Lua Kok Hiyong.
