KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered 172 watches from the Swatch Pride Collection, purportedly promoting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, to be returned to the watchmaker company.
Justice Amarjeet Singh made the order after allowing Swatch's judicial review application against the authorities' raid on the watches.
He said the raid that was conducted in May, last year, was illegal.
"The search was made without a warrant and is illegal. Therefore, any seizures made as stated in notices of seizure is illegal," he said in his brief judgment here on Monday (Nov 25).
Justice Amarjeet also said that the prohibition on the items only came after the seizure was conducted, therefore Swatch Group was not contravening any law prior to the raid.
The court ordered the watches to be returned within 14 days from the date of the order.
Justice Amarjeet did not make any order for costs or damages but said that Swatch Group could file a separate legal bid for compensation if the watches were damaged.
Swatch Group (M) filed the judicial review application on June 24, 2023.
It named the Home Ministry's secretary-general, the ministry's secretary of the enforcement division, the Home Minister and the government as the first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively.
The Swiss watchmaker is seeking a certiorari order from the court to nullify the seizure notice, a mandamus order for the respondents to return the watches as well as damages.
Between May 13 and May 15, 2023, Swatch Group claimed that several Home Ministry officers had conducted raids on 11 Swatch outlets across the country and seized 172 watches with nine different designs from the Pride collection.
The total value of the seized watches is RM64,795.
On August 10, 2023, the Home Ministry gazetted its August 9, 2023 ban or prohibition order against the import, production, sale, circulation, distribution or possession for such purposes of Swatch watches with “LGBTQ+” “which is likely to be prejudicial to morality is prohibited throughout Malaysia”.
