Kelantan's council made the sultan's son sultan while the father lay ill, and the father asked the Federal Court to give his throne back

Sultan Ismail Petra had ruled Kelantan since 1979. He suffered a stroke in May 2009. On 24 May 2009 his eldest son, Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra, was appointed regent. In December 2009 the state religious department confirmed that the sultan had secretly married a second wife, Elia Suhana Ahmad, on 31 December 2007. In February 2010 the Syariah High Court allowed her to visit him; palace authorities at Istana Mahkota stopped her after a relative applied to validate a divorce the sultan was alleged to have pronounced, in front of witnesses, while being treated in Singapore. On 13 September 2010 the Council of Regency, with 15 members present, met at 9 a.m. At 12.30 p.m. the state's chief minister proclaimed the regent sultan under Article 29A of the state constitution. On 20 September the father's lawyer, Param Cumaraswamy, said he had filed a petition in the Federal Court to declare the proclamation unconstitutional and to declare him the rightful sultan. The outcome of the petition is not reported in the sources found^†. In March 2011 the Syariah Court of Appeal held that Elia Suhana was still his lawful wife. The son reigns as Sultan Muhammad V. The father died on 28 September 2019, aged 69, and was buried beside his own father at the Langgar royal mausoleum.