Their respective petitions challenging state and federal laws governing oil and gas matters, will be heard in the order they were filed.
Justice Rhodzariah Bujang said the petitions would be heard in the order in which they were filed, Bernama reported.
However, she left it to the Federal Court panel hearing the petitions to decide whether it should first hear the Sarawak government’s preliminary issue concerning the validity of the Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council 1954 (OIC), which concerns the boundaries of Sarawak’s territorial waters.
She said, given that the two petitions are not consolidated, the panel hearing them would be in a better position to determine whether the preliminary issue should be heard first.
Rhodzariah made the decision today after the two cases came before her for summonses for directions.
She also directed both parties to file their respective submissions on the petitions and preliminary issues by Jan 11, with reply submissions due by Jan 18, and fixed Jan 12 for case management.
Senior state counsel Adzrul Adzlan, representing the Sarawak government, informed the court that it would file an application concerning its preliminary issue under Rule 23 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995 within 14 days.
Meanwhile, both Petronas and the Sarawak government will write to the chief justice to request an enlarged panel of either nine or 11 judges to hear the petitions.
Petronas and the Sarawak government previously indicated to the court that they wanted their respective petitions heard separately.
Petronas said it wanted its petition to be heard first, followed by the sequence in which the respective petitions were filed. However, the state government maintains that its petition should be heard first.
The national oil and gas company filed its petition on Jan 10 this year and obtained leave under Article 4(4) of the Federal Constitution on March 16 this year, while the Sarawak government filed its petition on Feb 23.
In today’s proceedings, Adzrul argued that the Federal Court panel hearing the petitions should first hear the preliminary issue concerning the OIC before proceeding with the petitions.
However, Petronas lawyer Cyrus Das argued that there was no basis to have the legal status of the OIC determined as a preliminary issue, saying the matter could be taken up during the hearing of the petition.
Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi, representing the federal government, supported the submission by Petronas’s counsel, arguing that Petronas’s petition should be heard first.
On March 16 this year, the Federal Court granted the national oil and gas company leave to commence proceedings challenging the legislative competency of the Sarawak legislature to enact certain laws and seeking to have several of its laws declared invalid.
It claimed that the Sarawak legislature lacked the competence to enact, modify, amend or revise laws with respect to matters under List 1 of the Federal List in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
The Sarawak government, meanwhile, filed a petition against the federal government and Petronas, asking the Federal Court to determine the constitutional validity and continued applicability of several federal Acts to Sarawak.
The state government, among others, is seeking a declaration that the Petroleum Development Act 1974, the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and the Petroleum Mining Act 1966 are unconstitutional and void ab initio as applied to Sarawak. - FMT
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