Section 3. Interpretation. (SYARIAH COURTS EVIDENCE ENACTMENT 2004

ENACTMENT NO. 11 OF 2004
SYARIAH COURTS EVIDENCE ENACTMENT 2004

PART I - RELEVANCY
CHAPTER 1 - PRELIMINARY

Section 3. Interpretation.

(1) In this Enactment, unless the context otherwise requires –

“aqil” means of sound mind;

"baligh" means having attained the age of puberty in accordance with Islamic Law;

"bayyinah" means evidence which proves a right or interest and includes qarinah;

"document" means any matter expressed, described, or howsoever represented, upon any substance, material, thing or article, including any matter embodied in a disc, tape, film, sound track or other device whatsoever, by means of –

(a) letters, figures, marks, symbols, signals, signs, or other forms of expression, description, or representation whatsoever;

(b) any visual recording (whether of still or moving images);

(c) any sound recording, or any electronic, magnetic, mechanical or other recording whatsoever and howsoever made, or any sounds, electronic impulses, or other data whatsoever;

(d) a recording, or transmission, over a distance of any matter by any, or any combination, of the means mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c);

(e) or by more than one of the means mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d), intended to be used or which may be used for the purpose of expressing, describing, or howsoever representing, that matter;

ILLUSTRATIONS

A writing is a document.

Words printed, lithographed or photographed are documents.

A map, plan, graph or sketch is a document.

An inscription on wood, metal, stone or any other substance, material or thing is a document.

A drawing, painting, picture or caricature is a document.

A photograph or a negative is a document.

A tape recording of a telephonic communication, including a recording of such communication transmitted over a distance, is a document.

A photographic or other visual recording, including a recording of photographic or other visual transmission over a distance, is a document.

A matter recorded, stored, processed, retrieved or produced by a computer is a document.

"Court Enactment" means the Syariah Court Enactment 2004;

"fact" means and includes –

(a) anything, state of things or relation of things capable of being perceived by the senses;

(b) any mental condition of which any person is conscious;

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) That there are certain objects arranged in a certain order in a certain place is a fact.

(b) That a person heard or saw something is a fact.

(c) That a person said certain words is a fact.

(d) That a person holds a certain opinion, has a certain intention, acts in good faith or fraudulently, or uses a particular word in a particular sense, or is or was at a specified time conscious of a particular sensation is a fact.

(e) That a person has a certain reputation is a fact;

"fact in issue" means any fact from which, either by itself or in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature or extent of any right, liability or disability asserted or denied in any suit or proceeding necessarily follows;

ILLUSTRATION

A is charged for an offence of khalwat with B.

At his trial the following facts may be in issue:

that A and B were together in a closed room;

that A and B were together in a vehicle parked in a dark place;

"film" means and includes a microfilm and any negative;

“Judge" means a Judge of the Syariah Appeal Court, the Syariah High Court or the Syariah Subordinate Court appointed under sections 6(1), 7(1) or 9(1) respectively, of the Court Enactment;

"Islamic Law" means Hukum Syarak according to Mazhab Syafie or any of Mazhab Hanafi, Maliki or Hanbali;

“evidence" includes –

(a) bayyinah and syahadah;

(b) all statements which the Court permits or requires to be made before it by a witness in relation to matters of fact under inquiry: such statements are called oral evidence;

(c) all documents produced for the inspection of the Court: such documents are called documentary evidence;

"computer" means any device for recording, storing, processing, retrieving or producing any information or other matter, or for performing any one or more of those functions, by whatever name or description such device is called; and where two or more computers carry out any one or more of those functions in combination or in succession or otherwise howsoever conjointly, they shall be treated as a single computer;

"Court" or "Syariah Court" means the Syariah Subordinate Court, Syariah High Court or the Syariah Appeal Court, as the case may be, constituted under section 4 of the Court Enactment;

"microfilm" means any transparent material bearing a visual image in reduced size either singly or as a series and includes a microfiche;

"negative" means a transparent negative photograph on any substance or material, and includes any transparent negative photograph made from the original negative photograph;

"Syar'ie Lawyer" means a person appointed as Syar'ie Lawyer under section 32 Court Enactment;

"qarinah" means fact connected with the other fact in any of ways referred to in this Enactment;

"witness" does not include a plaintiff, defendant and an accused person;

"syahadah" means any evidence adduced in Court by uttering the expression "asyhadu" to establish a right or interest;

“‘urf " means custom or practice recognized by society or certain class of people whether in the form of word or deed.

(2) In this Enactment –

(a) a fact is said to be "disproved" when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes that it does not exist or considers its non-existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it does not exist;

(b) a fact is said to be "not proved" when such fact is neither "proved" nor "disproved" according to this Enactment;

(c) a fact is said to be "proved" when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes it to exist or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it exists.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt as to the identity or interpretation of the words and expressions used in this Enactment that are listed in the Schedule, reference may be made to the Arabic Script for those words and expressions as shown against them therein.