Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof will be served this week with the cause papers on the legal challenge against today’s single-day Dewan Rakyat sitting, a lawyer said.
Keshvinjeet Singh Sidhu, who is from law firm Messrs Gunaseelan & Associates, said that the lawsuit’s court papers will be served on Muhyiddin and Ariff latest by Friday this week.
On Friday last week at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Registry, the law firm filed the originating summons on behalf of two plaintiffs, lawyer R Kengadharan and social activist D Arumugam.
The lawsuit named Muhyiddin and Ariff (below) as first and second defendants respectively.
“We will be serving the cause papers on the defendants this week. Latest by Friday,” Keshvinjeet said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
The lawyer added that the lawsuit will come up for case management before High Court judge Nordin Hassan on June 1 via e-Review.
The e-Review is a form of online teleconferencing whereby the parties conduct case management without needing to physically come to court.
On Friday last week, it was reported that the two plaintiffs filed the lawsuit seeking among others a declaration that today’s Parliament sitting, which is only slated to hear the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's speech, is not in accordance with the Federal Constitution and, thus null and void.
Dewan Rakyat was initially scheduled to convene on March 9 for its first session for this year, but the date was postponed after Muhyiddin was sworn in as prime minister following the political manoeuvres of the "Sheraton Move".
Last month, the Dewan Rakyat issued another notice that the sitting, which was rescheduled to May 18, would only be held for one-day due to fear of Covid-19. Before this, the sitting was set to take place for 15 days between May 18 and June 23.
The one-day sitting was further shortened to only have a single item on its agenda - the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s opening address - which ultimately slams the door shut on any no-confidence motion against the Muhyiddin-led Perikatan Nasional government.
Earlier on May 8, it was reported that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had filed a no-confidence motion against Muhyiddin. The motion was accepted by Ariff.
In a statement on May 13, Ariff said that he had received a letter from Muhyiddin in his capacity as leader of the House saying that due to the continuing Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the Dewan Rakyat will only convene for the Agong's opening speech at 10am, and the sitting would end immediately after that.
The decision to limit the single-day Parliament sitting today to only hear the Agong’s address and exclude any debate session has attracted criticisms from multiple quarters, with lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla reportedly saying that the validity of the sitting can be challenged in court. - Mkini
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