New child support formula on the way: Sharia courts to speed up payment of child support, says Minister Mohd Na'im

SHAH ALAM, Sept. 6 – The government will develop a special formula to be used by Sharia courts to determine maintenance rates for children of divorced parents.

Minister for Religious Affairs in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar said the new formula will settle long-standing debates over the amount of maintenance and speed up the payment of maintenance to children and ensure that they receive it without delay.

“In some other countries, a special formula is used to determine child support, which serves as a guideline in divorce cases.

“This formula will make it possible to shorten the time required to determine maintenance rates, eliminating the normally lengthy mediation process,” he told a press conference after chairing the closing ceremony of the 2024 International Conference on Family Law here today.

Mohd Na'im said the practice is different in Malaysia. There, courts have to hear the testimony of both the father and the mother, which can take months and is sometimes abused by the fathers to delay the case.

According to him, in some other countries, a specialised agency is given the power by the court to manage and enforce maintenance claims, including setting amounts and rates and overseeing the recovery process.

Asked whether the current maximum sentence of 30 days in prison for fathers who fail to pay maintenance ordered by the Sharia court should be extended, Mohd Na'im said that the existing legal provisions were sufficient for now.

The former chief judge of the Sharia court said that in his experience, fathers who are imprisoned for failing to pay court-ordered child support often “give up” after just one or two days in prison.

“I remember one case where the father expected his time in prison to be like a hotel stay. The very next day, he agreed to pay his child support arrears in order to be released immediately,” said Mohd Na'im. — Bernama