PUTRAJAYA: Muar member of parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and three voters in his constituency can proceed with their appeal in the Federal Court to challenge the lower court’s refusal to grant them leave to commence a judicial review of the government’s decision to stop the allocation intended for his constituency.
This follows a decision on Tuesday (March 10) by a three-member Federal Court bench comprising Datuk Nordin Hassan, Datuk Lee Swee Seng and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, which allowed their application for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision that went against them.
Justice Nordin said Syed Saddiq had fulfilled the threshold requirement under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
Under the law, litigants wishing to appeal a Court of Appeal decision in a civil case must first obtain leave from the Federal Court.
The court allowed three legal questions to be argued in the substantive appeal. One of the questions is whether, where an allocation for a parliamentary constituency for a Member of Parliament has been withdrawn or denied, such decisions are amenable to judicial review on the basis of a breach of the right to equality guaranteed under Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution, a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers and/or mala fide.
On April 23, 2024, Syed Saddiq, together with Muar voters Najib Abu Nawar, Mohd Bakirudin Abdullah and Muhamad Fadzly Bisri, filed an application seeking leave to commence a judicial review to quash the government’s decision to withhold RM500,000 from a total of RM1.7mil that was supposed to be channelled directly to the bank account of the Muar Parliamentary Service Centre for welfare, community well-being and disaster relief programmes.
They named the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government as respondents.
Additionally, they are asking the court to reinstate Syed Saddiq’s access to the myKHAS system, which manages the RM2mil development fund for the constituency, and to overturn the decision to cancel several projects worth RM230,300 that were approved through the system.
The applicants also challenged the respondents’ refusal to approve or allocate any funds to Syed Saddiq, as the MP for Muar, for programmes under "Projek Mesra Rakyat" or similar initiatives for 2024.
They contend that the respondents violated Syed Saddiq’s right to equality as the MP for Muar, as well as the rights of the three other applicants as voters in the constituency, as enshrined under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.
On Dec 24, 2024, the High Court dismissed the application by Syed Saddiq and the three voters, and the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal on Oct 27 last year.
In the proceedings on Tuesday, lawyer Lim Wei Jiet represented Syed Saddiq and the three voters, while Senior Federal Counsel Nurhafizza Azizan appeared for the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government. – Bernama
