ENACTMENT NO. 12 OF 1994 SYARIAH COURT EVIDENCE ENACTMENT 1994
PART I - RELEVANCY CHAPTER 1 - PRELIMINARY
Section 3. Interpretation.
(1) In this Enactment unless the context otherwise requires-
"baligh" means a person who has attained the age of puberty in accordance with Islamic Law;
"bayyinah" means evidence which proves a right or interest including qarinah;
"computer" means any device for recording, storing, processing, retrieving or 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 trated as a single computer;
"Court" or "Syariah Court" means the Syariah Subordinate Court, the Syariah High Court or the Syariah Appeal Court, constituted under section 8 of the Administration of the Syariah Court Enactment 1985 [En. 6/85.];
"disproved", 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;
"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, sign, or other forms of expression, description, or representation whatsoever;
(b) any visuals 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),
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 howsever representing, that matter;
ILLUSTRATIONS
A writing is a document.
Words printed, lighographed or photographed are documents.
A map or plan 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 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 record, stored, processed, retrived or produced by a computer is a document;
"evidence" includes-
(a) bayyinah and syahadah;
(b) all statements which the Court permits or requires to be made before it by 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;
"fact" means and includes-
(a) any thing, state of things or relation of things capable of being perceived by the senses;
(b) any mental condition of which any person is conscious;
ILLUSTRATION
(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 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, or 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 includes a microfilm and any negative;
"Islamic Law" means Islamic law according to any recognised Mazhab;
"Judge" means Judges of the Syariah High Court and Syariah Subordinate Court appointed under section 7 (1) (a) of the Administration of the Syariah Court Enactment 1986;
"microfilm" means any transparent material bearing a visual image in reduced size either singly or as a series and includes a microfiche;
"not proved"' a fact is said to be 'not proved' when such fact neither 'proved' nor 'disproved' according to this Enactment;
"negative" means a transparent negative photograph on any substance or material, and includes any transparent negative photograph made from the original negative photograph;
"Peguam Syarie" means a person appointed as a Peguam Syarie under section 19A of the Administration of the Syariah Court Enactment 1985;
"proved", afact 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 exist;
"qarinah", means fact connected with the other in any of the ways referred to in Islamic Law or the provisions of this Enactment.
"syahadah" means evidence which is permitted in Court by using expression 'asshadu' in order to establish a right or interest ;
"'urf" means custom or practice recognised by society or certain class of people whether in the form of the word or deed;
"witness" does not include the accused in a criminal proceedings and the parties in civil proceedings.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt as to the identify or interpretation of the words or 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.