PUTRAJAYA: More than half a million pensioners will not be entitled to the RM1.7bil they seek from the government in a judicial review as their complaint had been previously dealt with in a civil case, the Court of Appeal ruled.
The appellate judges decided that the government had succeeded in its appeal to set aside a High Court decision that ordered it to pay pension arrears amounting to RM1.7bil to 531,976 pensioners based on their final salary according to the 2016 Public Service Department Circular.
The three-member bench of the Court of Appeal – Justices Lim Chong Fong, Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid – overturned a judicial review granted by the High Court to Aminah Ahmad, who retired as a civil servant with the Foreign Ministry.
Justice Azhahari, who read out the unanimous judgment, said the issue of pension adjustments had already been decided by a previous Court of Appeal in 2022 in relation to Aminah’s first legal action via an originating summons in 2017.
He said the filing of the judicial review application was an abuse of process, intending to relitigate the issue of payment of arrears in the pension adjustment.
The court made no order as to costs, Bernama reported.
After the proceedings, Aminah’s lawyer Datuk Dr Baljit Singh Sidhu said that he would file for leave to appeal at the Federal Court.
Aminah filed the judicial review application on Jan 12, 2024 in her own capacity and on behalf of 56 retired members of the public service.
Justice Azhahari said Aminah’s pension entitlement and her entitlement to the arrears, which were the subject matter of the 2017 civil case, had been determined by the Court of Appeal.
“Hence, issue estoppel would prevent her from relitigating the same issue at the judicial review’s application.
“Even if res judicata does not apply, the court should also consider whether the doctrine of abuse of process is applicable to the facts of the case,” he said.
Justice Azhahari said, in the present appeal, the High Court judge in the judicial review application did not correctly consider the doctrine of abuse of process.
According to the judge, Aminah had not appealed against the decision of the High Court judge in the 2017 case that she had failed to prove her losses as a result of Sections 3 and 7 of the Pensions Adjustment Act (Amendment) 2013 (PAA 2013) (2013 Amendment Act).
The appellate judge said Public Service Department No 1 Circular 2016, which was the subject matter of the complaint, should be raised in the 2017 civil case.
The issue of the their entitlement to pension adjustment based on the pre-2013 Amendment Act belongs to the claim in the 2017 case, he added.
