The Johor Syariah Court of Appeal has deferred in delivering its judgment on the application of former sultanah of Johor, Tuanku Zanariah Tunku Ahmad, to nullify her divorce from the late Sultan Mahmud Iskandar, which was scheduled yesterday.

The court put off delivering its decision following the sudden death of Tuanku Zanariah's lead counsel Afshah Ariffin’s husband on Friday.

Lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamarulzaman, who is the solicitor for the former sultanah, told Malaysiakini the court would not allow her to listen to the judgment.

The court has not allowed the presence of Kamar Ainiah as well as Tuanku Zanariah and her daughters since the appeal started.

“Afshah is in shock over the sudden death of her husband and I drove down to Johor Baru to get the judgment. But the court refused and would only give the judgment on June 9,” said Kamar Ainiah.

It was previously reported that Tuanku Zanariah had submitted seven grounds of appeal against the Syariah High Court’s decision to uphold the syariah court’s decision to annul the marriage, which was done without her knowledge.

Tuanku Zanariah’s plight only began last August, when she received a letter from Johor mufti Mohd Tahrir Syamsuddin informing her that her husband Sultan Mahmud Iskandar had divorced her.

The letter stated that the divorce took place in 2010 at the Lower Syariah Court and had been backdated to Jan 23, 2009.

But the sultan had died on Jan 22, 2010, and was succeeded by his son from his first marriage, Tuanku Ibrahim Ismail.

Following this, Tuanku Zanariah also received a letter from former menteri besar Abdul Ghani Othman informing her that her sultanah title has been revoked.

This prompted her to mount the legal challenge.

The syariah court heard the matter without her presence and accepted the Johor Fatwa Committee’s edict that the divorce, which was allegedly witnessed by Ghani and Johor royal committee chairperson Tengku Osman Tunku Temenggong Ahmad - where both of them had made a statutory declaration - was valid.

This was later upheld by the Syariah High Court, which also issued a gag order on reporting the decision, resulting in this on-going appeal.