KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIAN - A judge in conservative Muslim-majority Malaysia was left flustered when someone claiming to be the wife of a defendant turned out to be a man wearing women's clothes.

The 'wife', wearing a woman's traditional punjabi suit and with long hair in plaits, had gone to court to post bail for a 39-year-old man charged with robbing a Bangladeshi in April, the Star newspaper said.

N. Rajendran - a man's name - told the judge he and the defendant lived in a traditional marriage, albeit one that was not yet officially registered with the state.

"How do I address you? As madam or mr?" Judge Zainal Abidin Kamarudin asked.

"Anything will do," said Rajendran, who added that he was applying to the authorities to change the gender given on his identity card.

In 2004, a Malaysian woman's lost her bid in court to be declared a man in a landmark decision in this mainly Muslim country barring transsexuals from registering their new gender.