What constitutional hurdle prevents Malaysian fathers from automatically passing citizenship to illegitimate children?

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Section 17 treats illegitimate children as having only the mother’s legal parentage for citizenship purposes
Malaysian fathers cannot automatically pass citizenship to illegitimate children because Section 17 of the Federal Constitution’s Second Schedule, Part III restricts the legal parentage of an illegitimate child to the mother only. As a result, the child cannot rely on the Malaysian father’s citizenship and must instead take the citizenship of the mother. In the Court of Appeal’s ruling affecting Perak-born Haritharan Mugunthan, the court applied this rule because his Malaysian father and Thai mother were not married when he was born.
Section 17 limits legal parentage for illegitimate children to the mother
Section 17 of the Federal Constitution’s Second Schedule, Part III provides that, for an illegitimate child, the parent legally considered is only the mother. The court treated this as a constitutional hurdle even though Haritharan was born to a Malaysian father in Malaysia. The effect in court was that citizenship could not be traced through the father for an illegitimate child.
The child therefore cannot rely on the Malaysian father’s citizenship
Applying Section 17, the Court of Appeal said Haritharan could not rely on his Malaysian father’s citizenship. The court stated that he would have to take on the Thai mother’s citizenship instead. This meant the father’s Malaysian status and administrative documents connected to him did not determine citizenship by operation of law.
Citizenship by operation of law depends on meeting constitutional requirements, not documents
The court acknowledged that Haritharan had been issued a Malaysian passport in 2002 and had other materials such as a MyKid number, school records, and immunisation records, which could explain why he and his family believed he was treated as Malaysian. However, it held that those documents are not the source of citizenship. The court concluded he failed to meet the Federal Constitution condition requiring at least one Malaysian or one permanent resident parent at the time of his birth.
The same Section 17 logic was applied in another Kuala Lumpur case
In another case decided the same day, two sisters were born in Kuala Lumpur to a Malaysian father and a non-Malaysian mother, with the parents not married when the sisters were born. The Court of Appeal applied Section 17, ruling they had to take the citizenship of their mother rather than their Malaysian father. Because the mother was found to be a Filipino citizen, the court dismissed their bid for Malaysian citizenship.

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What constitutional hurdle prevents Malaysian fathers from automatically passing citizenship to illegitimate children?

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