High Court grants cartoonist Zunar leave for judicial review of book ban

Cartoonist Zunar, another individual whom Amnesty had been campaigning for.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has granted leave for a judicial review to cartoonist Zunar (pic), who is challenging the ban on his book Sapuman: Man of Steal, by the Home Minister.

Lawyer N. Surendran told reporters later that Justice Azizah Nawawi granted leave to his client Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee SM Anwarul Haque, after Senior Federal Counsel Mazlifah Ayob, who acted for the respondents, did not raise any objections.

In his judicial review application filed on Jan 2, Zulkiflee named Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Government as the first and second respondents respectively.

Surendran said the next case management date was set for Feb 27.

Zulkiflee is seeking a certiorari order to quash the prohibition by the Home Minister under the Printing Presses and Publications (Control of Undesirable Publications) 2017 with immediate effect.

He is seeking for the order to be declared null and void for breaching Articles 5, 8 and 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution.