The Federal Court today ruled that the definition of "parent" should be plural, in its verdict in the unilateral conversion case involving the children of M Indira Gandhi and her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah.

This is a departure from the 2007 verdict in the case of R Subashini vs T Saravanan, which saw the wife instructed to seek recourse through the Syariah Appeals Court over her convert husband converting their children to Islam without her consent.

Court of Appeal president Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who led the bench, said the decision was unanimous, and stressed that although unilateral conversion is a contentious issue, today's decision was not swayed by the judges' religious convictions...