The Falsification Of Documents In Marriage Cases Under The Civil And Syariah Court In Malaysia: An Appraisal Analysis

If in the past documents only focused on the physical form alone, nowadays, the scope of documents is expanding and indirectly opens the door for forgery to occur. However, there is a lack of literature on the concept of documentary evidence and document falsification under the perspective of the Syariah law of Malaysia and Malaysian law. There are gaps in provisions and practices when dealing with cases involving document forgery between the Syariah court and the civil court, and improvements should be proposed in the Syariah court so that such cases can be handled more effectively in the future. Therefore, this study aims to examine the concept of documentary evidence and its falsification according to current realities from the perspective of Syariah law of Malaysia and Malaysian law, analyzing the existing provisions under the jurisdiction of Syariah law of Malaysia and Malaysian law relating to the offense of falsifying documents by making marriage cases as a sample of the study, analyzing several cases reported in Syariah and civil courts related to such cases, and proposing improvements under Syariah judicial institutions when handling cases of document forgery in the future. To achieve the study's objectives, content analysis methods from primary and secondary sources were used in this qualitative study. The collected data was then analyzed using inductive, comparative, and deductive approaches to reach conclusions. The study shows that the scope of document discussion in this increasingly modern world is increasingly broad and indirectly vulnerable to elements of forgery. This is because there are gaps under Syariah jurisdiction where there is no specific provision under Syariah law for document forgery offenses and Syariah law practitioners are also still less exposed to cases related to document forgery. Moreover, there is still no clear procedure to verify the authenticity of a document submitted in Syariah court, resulting in the submitted document having to be reheard and forgery not being detected in advance. Therefore, the Syariah courts need a new shift so that they can handle cases related to document forgery better in the future and will indirectly further enhance the credibility of the Syariah courts on par with the civil courts. This study is seen as very significant as a reference on this issue and also one of the efforts to identify weaknesses in terms of legislation and existing practices regarding document falsification, especially under the institution of the Syariah court.