Sedition Act a valid law, rules Court of Appeal

The Sedition Act 1948 is a valid law, the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya ruled today.

Chairing a three-person panel, Justice Sulaiman Daud said the Act did not contravene Article 4 (1) of the federal constitution and Article 10 (1) of the federal constitution.

Article 4 (1) proclaims the supremacy of the federal constitution and states that any law passed after Merdeka Day, which is inconsistent with the constitution, shall be void.

Article 10 (1) of the constitution recognises freedom of speech and expression as the fundamental right of all citizens.

Sulaiman also said that the Sedition Act came under the ambit of Article 10 (2) of the federal constitution which imposed restriction on freedom of speech.

He said the court agreed with the decision and findings in two court cases relating to the constitutionality of the Sedition Act in Madhavan and Anor vs public prosecutor (a 1975 High Court decision) and public prosecutor vs Karpal Singh (the Court of Appeal’s recent decision).

The panel, also comprising Court of Appeal judges Azhar Ma’ah and Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, unanimously dismissed an appeal brought by lawyer P Uthayakumar against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 26 last year, which rejected his (Uthayakumar’s) application to declare the Sedition Act unconstitutional.

The panel also dismissed Uthayakumar’s application for a stay of the proceedings in the Sessions Court.

Uthayakumar, 49, a former Internal Security Act detainee, was charged in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Dec 11, 2007, with publishing a seditious letter on the ‘Police Watch Malaysia’ website, dated Nov 15, 2007, addressed to then-prime minister of Britain, Gordon Brown.

He made the declaratory application (to declare the Sedition Act unconstitutional), in a bid to have the charge against him under the Act to be revoked and the prosecution in the proceedings in the Sessions Court be struck out.

The trial of his case is pending at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court which has fixed March 16 for mention.

Noorin Badaruddin is deputy public prosecutor.

- Bernama