PETALING JAYA: Senior lawyer Cyrus Das will appear for the Sabah government and caretaker chief minister Shafie Apadal in an appeal by 33 Sabah assemblymen against Governor Juhar Mahiruddin’s consent to dissolve the state assembly.
Das, whose specialities are administrative and constitutional law, gained ad-hoc admission to the state Bar today before judge Ismail Brahim in the High Court in Kota Kinabalu.
Das is also a former Malaysian Bar president.
Lawyers from the peninsula are barred from practising in Sabah and Sarawak unless they get permission from the local Bars, a condition stipulated under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
Sabah Attorney-General Brenndon Keith Soh confirmed that Das had gained admission to represent Shafie and the state in the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on Monday.
“I will be appearing for the governor,” he told FMT.
Meanwhile, another lawyer Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin also gained admission to appear for former chief minister and Sungai Sibuga representative Musa Aman and 32 others.
Lawyer Tengku Ahmad Fuad Tengku Ahmad Burhanuddin, who is also a lawyer for Musa, said there was no objection to Firoz’s admission.
“However, we objected to Das’ admission on the basis that the procedures were not followed but this was overruled,” he said.
Tengku Ahmad said the application to admit Das was only made yesterday.
The Court of Appeal has also fixed Sept 7 to hear a stay of a proclamation by Juhar to hold the state elections, which were gazetted on July 30.
The dissolution paved the way for a snap election in the state, with nominations on Sept 12 and polling on Sept 26.
On Aug 21, judicial commissioner Leonard David Shim struck out the assemblyman’s leave application for judicial review made on grounds that the governor’s actions were not justiciable in a court of law.
In his one-hour ruling, Shim said the court found that Shafie had acted within his constitutional right in asking Juhar to dissolve the state legislative assembly.
He also said Juhar had acted within the ambit of his power in dissolving the assembly.
Adding that the dissolution and proclamation were not amenable to judicial review, he refused the leave application.
Tengku Fuad however said the court found that the applicants had the legal standing to bring the matter to court, and that the judge appeared to have found that Shafie had lost the majority. - FMT
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