Appeal hearing by 16 ex-Umno members to challenge legality of party reset to Oct 26

A hearing appeal brought by 16 former Umno members to challenge the legality of the political party has been rescheduled to Oct 26.

Lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla (photo), who represented the group, said the hearing fixed for today has been reset following the imposition of the conditional movement control order (MCO).

He said the matter was then reverted to case management before Federal Court deputy registrar Azniza Mohd Ali through e-Review who instructed the parties to file their respective written submissions.

She also set Sept 28 for case management.

The 16 former Umno members were granted leave in February last year to appeal to the Federal Court against the High Court and Court of Appeal’s dismissal of their bid for leave to initiate a judicial review to challenge the legality of the political party.

The 16 former Umno members are Salihudin Ahmad Khalid, Noorhalimi Yahya, Mariam Mohd Ishak, Mohd Hafami Hanif, Saharudin Tukiman, Azaid Jani, Normalawati Hassan, Radiana Abd Manaf, Mohd Rafeek Rahim, Nurul Hanna Mohd Suhot, Kamarul Abd Wahid, Mohd Hikamal Md Hassim, Muzamzamir Abd Wahab, Norizam Jamaludin, Rohani Ahmad and Muhamad Hafizi Hashim.

In their application to seek leave to commence a judicial review, the 16 former Umno members sought a certiorari order to quash the decision of the Registrar of Society (RoS), as announced through a media statement dated March 5, 2018, to grant Umno an extension for its party elections till April 19, 2019, which exceeded the maximum period.

They had further sought a mandamus to compel RoS to provisionally dissolve Umno and for RoS to suspend all Umno activities pending disposal of the judicial review.

They also wanted a declaration that Umno was illegal effective April 20, 2018.

On April 27, 2018, the High Court dismissed the leave application for judicial review filed by the group after allowing the preliminary objection raised by RoS.

The then High Court judge Kamaludin Mohd Said (now Court of Appeal judge) dismissed the application for leave for judicial review on grounds that Section 18C of the Societies Act stipulates that a party member cannot bring a dispute regarding the party to court.

The group lost its appeal, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Nov 5 last year. - Bernama