The Federal Court in Malaysia on Monday declared unilateral conversion of a minor unlawful and ruled that the consent of both parents is needed to alter the faith of a child, The Malay Mail reported.

A woman named Indira Gandhi had sought to have the conversions of her three children nullified. In 2009, her then husband Mohammed Riduan Abdullah – an Islamic convert himself – had converted their children, who were all minors at the time, to Islam without her or the children’s knowledge. The Ipoh High Court had nullified the conversions in 2013, but Abdullah had challenged the verdict, Channel News Asia reported.

On Monday, the five-judge bench of Malaysia’s highest court observed that the word “parent” was “lost in translation” in such cases. The panel was referring to Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution, which states that “the religion of a person under the age of eighteen years shall be decided by his parent or guardian”.

Justice Tan Sri Zainun Ali, who wrote the judgment, said the court concluded that the word “parent” should not be construed literally and referred to both the mother and father. The bench also noted that conversion in this case was a “wrong thing” as the mother had custody of the children.