Sungai Siput MP wins court nod for federal fund appeal

March 08, 2012

PUTRAJAYA, March 8 — The Federal Court today allowed Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj's bid for a judicial review of a special fund for MPs to develop their constituencies.

A five-men Bench, led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria, made the unanimous decision to reverse a Court of Appeal ruling last October 10 in favour of the Attorney-General.

The top government lawyer had argued that the Sungai Siput MP’s claim that the distribution of lawmakers’ funds lacked consistency and transparency was not legally enforceable or reviewable by the judiciary.

Dr Jeyakumar (picture), who beat former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to take Sungai Siput in 2008, had challenged the federal government for denying him access to the Special Constituency Allocation since 2008.

In his application, he argued that allocation should be made available to all MPs equally and was seeking, among others, an order to compel the Implementation Co-ordination Unit director-general, Perak State Development office director and the federal government to specify who can apply for funds from the allocation.

Then High Court judge Datuk Aziah Ali had granted leave to Dr Jeyakumar for a judicial review on February 2010, which was overturned by a three-men panel of judges in the Court of Appeal.

Datuk Wira Low Hop Bing, who led the Court of Appeal panel, had said the High Court decision was an error, adding there were currently no laws that allowed a challenge on the discretionary nature of the fund allocations.