The Kuala Lumpur High Court will decide on Wednesday whether to allow Dr Mahathir Mohamad's judicial review to recuse former chief justice Md Raus Sharif and two others from chairing a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) over the sovereignty of Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks, and South Ledge.
The civil court verdict is a mere hour before the RCI at Putrajaya is set to subpoena the former prime minister to attend the inquiry over whether Malaysia should have withdrawn its appeal against a 2008 International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision.
The ICJ ruling awarded sovereignty over Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore, Middle Rocks to Malaysia, and South Ledge to “the state in the territorial waters of which it is located”.
The Wednesday civil court verdict by judge Amarjeet Singh would also determine whether the closed-door RCI proceedings on that day would be open to the public and whether Mahathir would be allowed to bring his lawyers to the inquiry.
Amarjeet set the date after hearing oral submissions from Mahathir's counsel Zainur Zakaria and the federal government's senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan over the merits of the judicial review.
Risk of bias
During open-court proceedings today, Zainur submitted that RCI chairperson Raus and two other commission members - Baljit Singh Sidhu and Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir - be recused over the risk of bias.
In Mahathir's affidavit in support of the legal action, the former premier claimed there was past animosity between him and Raus.
This is because in 2017, Mahathir filed a judicial review to challenge Raus' appointment as an additional Federal Court judge past his retirement age.
After Mahathir became prime minister again, Raus purportedly met him in May 2018 to express his intention to resign as chief justice and then tendered his resignation a month later.
Zainur said that Baljit and Ridha were part of a previous separate task force over the issue involving Mahathir's second tenure as prime minister between 2018 and 2020.
In 2022, then-prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob revealed the findings of the task force report that Mahathir was possibly negligent by failing to file an appeal against the ICJ’s decision.
Zainur also told Amarjeet that the RCI's closed-door proceedings should be open to the public because many parties have previously made public statements about Mahathir's alleged negligence.
He added that this would allow Mahathir's version of events to be publicly accessible during the RCI hearing.
However, Shamsul argued that Mahathir's judicial review ought to be dismissed because the civil court is barred by law from hearing the issue of the appointment of the RCI members.
He said this is because the RCI members' composition is determined by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which is enshrined under the Federal Constitution.
At the end of proceedings today, Mahathir's co-counsel Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali informed the civil court that the RCI summoned the former premier at 9.30am on Wednesday.
Amarjeet then set 8.30am on that same day to deliver his decision.
Open court proceedings
Earlier this month, Mahathir filed the judicial review bid, seeking to make the closed-door proceedings open to the public and to remove three of the seven members of the RCI panel due to an alleged risk of bias.
He is also seeking a court declaration he is a “person whose conduct is the subject of enquiry or who is implicated in the matter” investigated by the RCI, as per Section 18 of the Royal Commission of Enquiry Act 1950.
Section 18 of the Royal Commission of Enquiry Act entitles such a person to be represented by a lawyer throughout the proceedings and for that lawyer to address the commissioners.
He also wants the RCI to serve him and his lawyers with all documents, a list of witnesses, and other documentary evidence that will be presented at the inquiry.
Previously, Mahathir had claimed that the RCI proceedings were being held behind closed doors without notifying him or his legal team.
When his lawyers inadvertently found out about the proceedings and went to a May 21 RCI hearing to make several applications and objections, they were rejected and were forced to stay out of the remainder of the proceedings.
He was subpoenaed later to appear before an RCI hearing on June 12.
The judicial review application named all seven RCI commissioners as respondents, in addition to its secretary Zamri Misman.
The RCI panel members are Raus, Zainun Ali (deputy chairperson), Baljit, Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin, Faridah Jalil, Ridha, and Dickson Dollah.
The task force was also chaired by former attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali, who has a “bitter history” with Mahathir. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.