PUTRAJAYA: The Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Amendment) Bill, known as RUU 355, will not be tabled during the third session of the 15th Parliament starting next Monday (Oct 14).
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar said they will proceed with the second reading of the Mufti Bill instead.
“There is no RUU 355, as decided, we will present the Mufti Bill,” he told reporters during a press conference here on Friday (Oct 11).
He added that the Cabinet had previously agreed to present the second and third readings of the Mufti Bill during this Parliamentary session.
In July, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had noted that amendments to RUU 355 should not be rushed.
He recommended that the process be carried out carefully, taking into account the views of all parties, including the syariah and civil courts, as well as international legal experts.
The Mufti Bill is one of four bills that had been postponed from the previous Parliamentary session.
The other three bills include the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024, the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Bill, and the Syariah Court Civil Procedure (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2024.
PAS president and Marang MP Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang first proposed the RUU 355 amendment as a private member’s bill in 1996.
The bill seeks to expand the jurisdiction of Syariah Courts beyond the current limits of RM5,000 fines, three years’ imprisonment, or six strokes of the cane, aligning it more closely with Syariah law, excluding the death penalty.
