KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities, with 54 others, want the High Court to set aside a decision by Registrar General of Private Higher Educational Institutions (PHEI) to impose extra conditions for the registration of international students.
The applicants claimed that they had the legal right to call for a judicial review because they were affected by the decision.
They said the decision required all private institutions to use the Student Applications and Registrations System (Stars), which was owned and operated by Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS), which they claimed created a monopoly.
Upon submission of an application for an international student pass, the private institution would be charged a mandatory processing fee of RM1,000, which would be payable directly to EMGS, the applicants said.
They said they were affected by the additional conditions of registration that had been imposed through a circular dated Jan 23, 2013, to private institutions nationwide.
They claimed that the decision was unlawful as it was beyond the powers of the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996.
Steven Thiru, lawyer for the applicants, said they had the legal right to initiate the judicial review proceedings to quash the decision.
He said the High Court should dismiss the application by EMGS to dispose of their proceedings for a judicial review, on points of law.
He argued that the court should have a substantive judiciary review hearing because the applicants on May 22, 2013, obtained leave to challenge the decision.
However, Gopal Sreenevasan who appeared for EMGS argued that the court could dispose of the judicial review based on points of law, saying that the applicants lacked legal standing to bring the action.
He also added that the applicants were not adversely affected by the decision.
He said that the 53 other applicants, all private higher education institutes, were business enterprises.
“They are not entities or personalities recognised in law as being capable of suing and issuing the judicial review application,” said Gopal.
Justice Asmabi Mohamad will decide on the application by EMGS on Sept 28.
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