A Baseline Study of the Enforcement of Nafkah Orders in the Selangor Syariah Court

This study examines problems in the enforcement of nafkah orders of the Syariah Court. Despite the fact that the Syariah Court is guided by comprehensive statutory laws, complaints on matters related to the enforcement of nafkah orders remain unresolved. Previous studies on this issue showed that women and children were the most affected group due to the weak enforcement of the Syariah Court’s nafkah orders. Therefore, this study was undertaken to examine and identify problems that have resulted in failure to enforce nafkah orders. This research uses the qualitative approach based on legal doctrine and data collection from field study. Data were obtained through examination of files from court and from informants, namely, officers from the Syariah Court as well as clients of the court. The study discloses an obvious co-relation between complex and lengthy processes, unnecessary time consumption and cost inefficiency with the enforcement order of nafkah. This article is the preamble to an envisaged study on the enforcement of the nafkah order in the Syariah Court. The results will be useful for further improvement of existing legal provisions in Malaysia.