Ex-civil servants not opposing govt’s bid to appeal pension law

 

The court has fixed June 16 to hear the leave application and parties must file written submissions by June 1. (Reuters pic)

PUTRAJAYA: A group of retired civil servants will not oppose the government’s leave application to set aside a Court of Appeal ruling that declared as unconstitutional an amended pension law.

Lawyer Chin Yan Leng said they had received instructions from their lead counsel, Gopal Sri Ram, to have the Federal Court hear the merits of the appeal as an important constitutional issue would be raised.

“We take the position that the government’s (four) legal questions have met the threshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act,” she told FMT after a case management before deputy registrar Rasidah Roslee.

That clause allows a Federal Court bench to hear the merits of the appeal only if an applicant succeeds in showing that the legal or constitutional questions posed are novel and of public advantage.

Chin said the court has fixed June 16 to hear the leave application and parties must file written submissions by June 1.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan and Liew Horng Bin and federal counsel M Kogilambigai represented the government and the director-general of public service.

On Jan 13, a three-member Court of Appeal bench held that the amended Pensions Adjustment Act, which came into effect on Jan 1, 2013, was unconstitutional.

Pensioner Aminah Ahmad and 56 others had initiated a suit in 2017 but lost in the High Court.

Judge Darryl Goon, who wrote the judgment, said the amendment violated Article 147 of the Federal Constitution as any new pension scheme cannot be less favourable than the old.

Under the old scheme, the pension of government retirees was revised based on the prevailing salary of incumbent civil servants in that grade.

However, from 2013, a new scheme was introduced based on a flat rate of 2% annual increment. - FMT