Anwar, 4 reps get leave to appeal on Muhyiddin’s advice to suspend Parliament
PUTRAJAYA: Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and four elected representatives have got the nod from the Federal Court to proceed with their appeal to challenge Muhyiddin Yassin’s action in advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament during the emergency period. A three-member bench, led by Federal Court judge Nallini Pathmanathan,…
PUTRAJAYA: Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and four elected representatives have got the nod from the Federal Court to proceed with their appeal to challenge Muhyiddin Yassin’s action in advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament during the emergency period.
A three-member bench, led by Federal Court judge Nallini Pathmanathan, in a majority 2-1 decision today, allowed the applications by Anwar, Pulai MP Salahuddin Ayub, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, Tebing Tinggi assemblyman Abdul Aziz Bari and Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim to obtain leave to appeal against the decision by the Court of Appeal.
Anwar and four elected representatives lost their appeals on Nov 24 last year.
A litigant must first obtain leave in order to proceed with the appeal to the Federal Court.
Nallini and Ong Lam Kiat ruled in favour of the applicants while Zabariah Mohd Yusof dissented.
Nallini, in her majority decision, said she and Ong were of the view that leave should be granted under Section 96(a) and (b) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 as these are matters of public importance and novelty.
“We are also of the view that the applications are not academic. Therefore, we allowed the applications with costs,” Nallini said.
Zabariah, in the minority decision, said the provision of Article 150(6) of the Federal Constitution stated that no legislation enacted pursuant to a proclamation of emergency shall be invalid on the grounds of inconsistency with any provision of the Constitution.
On April 22 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Anwar’s application to obtain leave to commence a judicial review to challenge Muhyiddin’s advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, to suspend Parliament during the state of emergency.
Then High Court judge Mariana Yahya (now Court of Appeal judge) dismissed Anwar’s application on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the judicial review, based on Articles 150(6) and 150(8) of the Federal Constitution.
Mariana ruled that the advice of the Cabinet and Muhyiddin to the King to promulgate the Emergency Ordinance was not amenable to judicial review.
Anwar, who is Port Dickson MP, filed the application seeking leave to initiate a judicial review on Jan 25 last year, naming Muhyiddin and the government as respondents in his application.
Anwar is seeking, among others, a court declaration that the decision by the Cabinet, led by Muhyiddin, to advise the King to promulgate Section 14 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021, which had resulted in the suspension of Parliament, was unconstitutional, unlawful, has no effect and is ultra vires the Constitution.
On March 11 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the applications for leave for judicial review brought by Salahuddin, Johari and Aziz in a similar issue while Hassan’s leave bid was dismissed by the Johor Bahru High Court on April 26 last year.
They had also named Muhyiddin and the government as respondents in their applications. — Free Malaysia Today