State enactments · Negeri Sembilan
Islamic Family Law (Negeri Sembilan) Enactment 2003
Islamic family law for Negeri Sembilan, as held by this site. Every section has its own address, so references on this site can open the exact section.
An archive copy, not the current text. The e-Syariah portal did not answer on 13 October 2026 (UTC), so every section below was taken from the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) copy of that portal, captures 2016–2019. Amendments made after the capture date are not included.
Key Parts only. What is held is the long title, sections 1 to 41 (preliminary, marriage, polygamy, registration and related offences) and section 120 to the end (harta sepencarian, appeals, penalties and general). Sections 42 to 119 (dissolution of marriage, maintenance, guardianship and legitimacy) were not fetched. The list of sections held is below.
Where this text comes from
Short title (section 1), Malay
Short title (section 1), English
Number
Enactment No. 11 of 2003
Enacting words, as written
Dates as recorded in the source header
Where the text was obtained
Law library of the e-Syariah portal (JKSM), through the Wayback Machine web-archive copy, captures 2016–2019
Accessed on
14 October 2026 (GST; 13 October 2026 UTC)
Languages held
Malay and English
How much was read
Key Parts: 59 of 136 numbered sections held
Key sections
Polygamy section
Polygamy without permission
s.124: a fine not exceeding RM1,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both
Minimum age
s.8: 18 for a man and 16 for a woman, except with the written permission of the Syarie Judge, as in the text held
Registration of marriage
Harta sepencarian on divorce
Definition of “Court”
What this text shows
- Section 23 in this text has ten subsections: the application and iqrar at s.23(4), the four conditions at s.23(5)(a)–(d), service of the application on each existing wife and the woman to be wedded at s.23(6), and the power to order maintenance or the division of jointly acquired assets at s.23(10). In Act 303 the same matters sit at s.23(3), s.23(4), s.23(5) and s.23(9).
- The offence of polygamy without permission is s.124, not s.123, because s.123 in this enactment is the appeals section. Its maximum penalty is the same as Act 303 s.123.
- Section 23 says only “the Court”. Section 2 defines it as the Syariah Subordinate Court or the Syariah High Court, as the case may be. The enactment itself does not fix the level of court for a polygamy application.
- The penalty formula in this text reads “apabila disabitkan boleh didenda tidak melebihi …”, where Act 303 reads “shall be punished with a fine not exceeding …”. Section 38 (false declaration) and s.39 (unauthorised solemnization): a fine not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both, in both language texts.
- Polygamy applications are heard in the Syariah High Court because of JKSM Practice Direction No. 14 of 2006 (in effect from 1 June 2006), not because of this enactment; the text of that practice direction was read on 14 October 2026.
To be checked for this State
- Commencement notice (1 March 2004): the portal’s Malay page cites “N.S. P.U. 2/2004”, its English page “N.S. P.U. 204/2004”. The check of 14 Oct 2026 compared the portal headers of the five Negeri Sembilan 2003 enactments that came into force on the same day. The Malay pages number them N.S. P.U. 1/2004 to 5/2004 (Enactments 10 to 14 of 2003, this enactment being number 2). The English pages give the same numbers for Enactments 12, 13 and 14, but “204/2004” for Enactment 10 and Enactment 11. This supports “N.S. P.U. 2/2004”, but it is still portal evidence, not the gazette: Negeri Sembilan Government Gazette Nos. 5 to 8 of 2004 (Sinar Project archive) carry no P.U. notices, and the State’s subsidiary legislation supplement for that year was not found.
- Harta sepencarian (s.122): the Malay text reads “pembahagian yang sama banyak”; the English text reads “equal distribution”. Act 303 s.122(2) reads “incline towards equality of division”. The Negeri Sembilan gazette text was not reached on 14 Oct 2026. The sections held (ss.1–41 and s.120 to the end) contain no provision on which language text prevails. The general rule outside this enactment was read on 14 Oct 2026: section 6 of the National Language Acts 1963/67 makes the Malay text of a State enactment authoritative unless the Yang di-Pertuan Agong prescribes otherwise. So if the gazette also differs, the Malay text is authoritative; to see whether the gazette differs, consult the gazette. For comparison, the Melaka bilingual gazette itself prints two different wordings for the same sentence (see the Melaka page).
- Amendments made after the archive capture date were not reached at text level. Check the State gazette before relying on this text.
The text held
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 58 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136
The text above is a copy for reference, copied unchanged from the source stated; spelling errors in the source are kept. The binding text is the one gazetted by this State, including the latest amendments. This page is not legal advice.
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