KOTA KINABALU: The effect of the Court of Appeal’s stay order on the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s decision on the state’s 40% revenue for the “Lost Years” does not put aside the findings of the lower court, say legal experts.
Sabah Law Society president Datuk Mohamed Nazim Maduarin said the effect of the stay order is to preserve the position pending the disposal of the appeal.
“It does not displace the findings of the High Court, including its determination that there had been a failure to conduct the periodic review required under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution,” he said in response to the Court of Appeal’s decision.
“The substantive constitutional issues, including the interpretation and proper implementation of Article 112D of the Federal Constitution, remain to be determined in the appeal,” he said following the stay of the execution of the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s Oct 17 decision.
Nazim said the appellate court held that it had jurisdiction to allow the stay because there were special circumstances.
A three-member Court of Appeal panel chaired by Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan allowed the Federal Government’s application to temporarily suspend the High Court’s order for the state and Federal Government to settle the “lost” revenue due to Sabah from between 1974 and 2021.
The stay order came as the Federal Government appeals against the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s decision.
On Oct 17 last year, Kota Kinabalu High Court Justice Celestina Stuel Galid decided that the Federal Government and the Sabah government ought to hold a mandatory review of the special grant of 40% return on state revenue that Sabah is entitled to, which has been pending since 1974.
She also ruled that the Federal Government’s issuance of a special grant to the Sabah government, and its method of deriving the sum, was unlawful.
