KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 15 -- Former chief justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad has chastised critics of the Federal Court's decision to declare 16 out of 18 Kelantan Shariah provisions null as being "uninformed" of legal matters, saying he has to stop short from labelling them "ignorant".

Writing on his website yesterday, Abdul Hamid said he had already brought up the constitutional clash in Kelantan's state enactments as early as 2014, and said that the Federal Court could have struck down more than 16 of the provisions if more had been challenged.

"Accusing Muslim civil court judges of 'refusing Shariah' reveals a lack of understanding about the existing constitutional and legal provisions to which everyone, including Shariah court judges, is ...