The civil court has no jurisdiction to hear a legal action over internal matters of political party MyPPP, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) contended.
Lawyer Syereen Tang, who acts for M Kayveas in the judicial review leave application over the validity of Maglin Dennis D’cruz’s appointment as MyPPP president, confirmed this was the crux of the AGC’s objections against the legal action.
The AGC represented the two respondents targeted by the legal challenge, namely the home minister (who was not named) and the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
“They (respondents) are objecting to our judicial review leave application. However, since the AG only served us their written submissions late evening yesterday, we informed the court (today) that we would need time to file a reply to the AG’s submission.
“The judge took note of the last-minute service, and proceeded to fix the matter for hearing on Aug 29 at 9am, and directed us to file our written submissions by the said date,” Syereen said, adding that the AGC is relying on Section 18C of the Societies Act 1966.
Section 18C states that any decision made by a party cannot be challenged or questioned in court.
The lawyer was speaking when contacted after open-court proceedings before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Amarjeet Singh. Today was initially set for the hearing of Kayveas’ (above, right) legal action.
Federal counsel Muhammad Hairuliqram Hairuddin from the AGC appeared for the minister and ROS.
On July 7, Kayveas - who led MyPPP for two decades - filed the judicial review to nullify D’cruz’s appointment as party president.
The veteran politician’s legal challenge targets the Home Ministry’s decision on April 11 to reverse the ROS’ 2019 decision to deregister MyPPP, the successor of the People's Progressive Party, which was once a powerful Ipoh-based political outfit.
The party was deregistered after two factions claimed to be the legitimate leaders of the party. Kayveas led one faction while D'cruz headed the other.
On April 11 this year, D’cruz reportedly said that the Home Ministry notified MyPPP of the reinstatement of party registration, further claiming that the ROS - which is under the ministry - also recognised the validity of the party supreme council line-up that was elected earlier on March 19.
He won the party presidency unopposed during the annual general meeting.
Who is the rightful president?
However, through the present legal challenge, Kayveas contended that the MyPPP annual general assembly on March 19 - which saw the appointment of D’cruz as party president - was invalid.
He claimed this was because the March 19 party assembly was attended by 13 people who were allegedly not valid party members.
Kayveas claimed that the party had validly held its actual annual general assembly a day earlier on March 18, whereby he contended that he was rightfully appointed as party president.
The applicant claimed that this was conveyed to the ROS via a letter dated March 20.
Kayveas, however, alleged that on April 11, one Badrul Hisham Alias who allegedly represented the home minister had informed about the reinstatement of MyPPP’s registration.
He claimed that the decision contravened Section 18 of the Societies Act 1966, which requires the decision to be delivered by the minister and not anybody else.
Kayveas alleged that he had then written to the minister on April 18 over the alleged contravention.
The applicant also claimed that he wrote to the ROS on June 1 to air his objections over April 11’s decision.
Kayveas claimed that he had applied from the ROS for him to arrange a meeting with the registrar to resolve the issue amicably, but that the ROS gave no response to this.
Through the judicial review, the applicant seeks several reliefs, among them being declarations that the valid MyPPP annual general assembly was the one held on March 18 and that the assembly on March 19 is invalid.
Kayveas also seeks an order of certiorari to quash the April 11 decision conveyed by Badrul.
Kayveas helped secure MyPPP’s return to both houses of Parliament in 2004.
In 2018, just weeks before the general election, he suddenly resigned as party president but withdrew his resignation letter a few days later.
This resulted in a situation where Kayveas and D'cruz both claimed to be the MyPPP president. At the time, Kayveas' faction was adamant about leaving BN while D’cruz's group was not. As of today, MyPPP is not part of BN. - Mkini
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