Section 80. Persons entitled to custody of a child. (ADMINISTRATION OF ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW ENACTMENT 1985

ENACTMENT NO. 12 OF 1985
ADMINISTRATION OF ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW ENACTMENT 1985

PART VII - GUARDIANSHIP
Hadanah or Custody of Children

Section 80. Persons entitled to custody of a child.

(1) Subject to section 81, the mother shall be, of all persons, the best entitled to the custody of her infant children during the connubial relationship as well as after its dissolution.

(2) Where the Court is of the opinion that the mother is disqualified under Hukum Syara' from having the right to hadanah or custody of her children, the right shall, subject to subsection (3), pass to one of the following persons in the following order of preference,
that is to say-

(a)

the maternal grandmother, how-high-soever;

(b)

the father;

(c)

the paternal grandmother, how-high-soever;

(d)

the full sister;

(e)

the uterine sister;

(f)

the sanguine sister;

(g)

the maternal aunt;

(h)

the full sister's daughter;

(i)

the uterine sister's daughter;

(j)

the sanguine sister's daughter;

(k)

the brother's daughter;

(l)

the paternal aunt;

(m)

the male heirs who are

'asabah.

(3) No man shall have a right to the custody of a female child unless he is a mahram, that is to say, he stands to her within the prohibited degrees of relationship.

(4) Where there are several persons of the same line or degree, all equally qualified and willing to take charge of the child, the custody shall be entrusted to the one most virtuous who shows the greatest tenderness to the child, and where all are equally virtuous, then the senior among them in age shall have the priority