The Selangor government, Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s wife Puan Sri Salbiah Tunut, the current group president, Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad, Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Berhad, the Selangor State Development Corporation and five others had filed the application for leave for a judicial review to quash the ROS decision to deregister Balkis (Wives of Selangor Elected Representatives Charity Organisation).
“This marks a victory at this stage for the state government in that there is a basis to challenge the deregistration of Balkis, which is the first step to the recovery of the money,” Selangor lawyer Derek Fernandez told reporters.
He told The Malaysian Insider the case will now go back to the High Court for a full hearing.
“It took a lot of taxpayers’ money to take this case up to the Federal Court on such a preliminary issue,” he said.
Fernandez said there was no basis to deregister Balkis, and that Zaharah Kechik, its former president, did not have the authority to do so.
They had named the ROS as the respondent and had sought to have its February 11, 2009 decision to dissolve Balkis to be declared null and void and for an order for the organisation to be reinstated.
The organisation made the headlines after Khalid alleged that there had been misappropriation of Balkis’ funds under Zaharah, the wife of former Selangor mentri besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo.
Apart from Fernandez, S. Selvarajah also appeared on behalf of the state government today.
The decision to dismiss the AG’s bid was made by Federal Court judges Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, Tan Sri Mohd Ghazali Yusoff, and the Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff.
According to court papers, an emergency general meeting (EGM) was held by members to dissolve the charity, on March 11, 2008, against Balkis’s own constitution.
But the office bearers and other members whose husbands lost in Election 2008 had ceased to be ordinary members by then.
Fernandez said that according to ROS, some of Balkis’s funds were then channelled to Bakti (The Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers).
“Now we want the money to go back to the Selangor government,” he said.
Elizabeth Wong, a Selangor executive councillor, told The Malaysian Insider the decision today will allow the government to move towards reclaiming the state’s funds.
“So this will pave way for the Selangor government to take action to recover something close to RM10 million worth of money that Balkis is holding.
“Our lawyers can now go ahead to take Balkis to court and take back the money,” she said.
Selvarajah had submitted on August 10, 2009 at the High Court proceedings for leave to initiate judicial review, that his clients had contributed more than RM6.8 million to Balkis’s funds and that there was a breach of trust when Balkis was wrongly dissolved.
On August 10, 2008, the appellate court dismissed an application by the plaintiffs to strike out a notice filed by the AG to appeal against the High Court’s decision on grounds that an
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