The Federal Court has vacated the hearing of an application for leave (permission) to appeal by Catholic weekly The Herald which was earlier planned on Feb 24 to March 5.

The Herald is appealing the Court of Appeal’s decision last October, that allows the Home Ministry to impose the ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the publication’s Bahasa Malaysia version to refer to God.

The Herald’s solicitor S Selvarajah informed Malaysiakini of this latest development.

The replacement date was decided by the Federal Court registrar.

The court had earlier fixed last November to have the Federal Court hear the leave application.

In civil cases at the Federal Court, permission has to be gained from the court to allow the appeal to be heard fully.

The Herald had filed 26 grounds of appeal or questions of law over the Court of Appeal decision that could be divided into three parts: namely constitutional issues, administrative issues and comparative religious issues.

Islamic councils from Terengganu, Kedah, Johor, Malacca, Selangor, and the Federal Territories along with the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (Macma) have indicated that they oppose to the leave application.

Father Lawrence Andrew had won when the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 31 ruled the Home Ministry ban as illegal and unconstitutional.

This resulted in the Home Ministry to appeal and hence the controversial decision by the Court of Appeal that ‘Allah’ is not an essential part of the Christian religion.