KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed a legal action filed by two MPs and two others who challenged the advice by former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament during the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago.
Justice Aliza made the dismissal on two judicial review applications were filed separately by Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim and Perak assemblyman Abdul Aziz Bari as well as two originating summons filed separately by the Malaysian Bar and NGO Bersih, on the same subject matter.
In her decision, the judge said the declaration sought was tied to the past revocation, expiry and parliamentary treatment of the emergency ordinances.
"This court is not persuaded that the declaratory relief sought by the applicants and the plaintiffs should be granted.
"Therefore the applicants in the judicial review applications and the plaintiffs in the originating summons are dismissed with no order as to cost," she said here on Friday (Sept 4).
On July 24, 2024, the Federal Court granted leave to Hassan and Abdul Aziz to begin a judicial review challenging Muhyiddin's advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to suspend Parliament during the Covid-19 pandemic through an emergency proclamation.
The case was remitted back to the High Court for the hearing of the substantive applications.
In their judicial review, the duo sought a court declaration that the decision by the Cabinet, led by Muhyiddin, to advise the then 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to promulgate Section 14 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021, which had resulted in the suspension of Parliament, is unconstitutional, unlawful, has no effect and is ultra vires.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Bar and Bersih separately filed originating summons challenging aspects of the emergency proclamation and ordinances.
More to come
