KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Puan Sri Kalsom Ismail, who is the widow of former minister, the late Tan Sri Jamaludin Jarjis, had on March 25, 2022 filed an application in the Syariah High Court here to amend her claim on joint matrimonial assets, which are said to be worth about RM2 billion, as she wants to omit and add several properties or assets into her claim.
According to lawyers representing Jamaludin's mother Aminah Abdullah, who is against Kalsom's move, Kalsom is seeking half of the joint matrimonial assets which include houses, cash and company shares.
According to Aminah's lawyers Farhan Haziq and Nur Hidayah A Bakar, this is the second application by Kalsom to amend her joint matrimonial asset claim.
Farhan told theedgemarkets.com: “The matter came up before the Syariah High Court registrar Hadi Ahmad, where we recorded our objection to the amendment."
"As a result, the court asked us to file an affidavit in reply to express our objection to the amendment and fixed May 17 for case management over our objection,” Farhan said.
Representing Kalsom was lawyer Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah.
Farhan said it remains to be seen whether Kalsom can testify in her case as scheduled this Thursday (April 7) as the matter would have to be decided by Syariah High Court Judge Haznita Hamidon.
On Jan 11, Haznita reportedly set April 7 as the new date to hear the case after the hearing scheduled for Jan 11 was postponed.
Haznita reportedly postponed the case hearing as there were several issues with the documents raised by both parties in the case. The issues involved plaintiff Kalsom's witness statement, which was only filed and submitted to the defendants on Jan 11.
The defendants in the case are Jamaludin and Kalsom's children Ikwan Hafiz, Nur Anis, Nurul Alyaa and Noor Adilla, besides Jamaludin’s mother Aminah.
Jamaludin and Kalsom's estimated RM2 billion worth of joint matrimonial assets reportedly include houses in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the US.
The assets include cash amounting to more than RM15 million deposited in 21 bank accounts besides shares in 15 companies.