SYED SADDIQ FAILS IN BID FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW OF MUAR PARLIAMENTARY ALLOCATION

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- The Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeal by Muar Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and three voters in the constituency for leave to commence a judicial review of the government's decision to stop the allocation intended for the parliamentary constituency.

Syed Saddiq and the other appellants - Najib Abu Nawar, Mohd Bakirudin Abdullah and Muhamad Fadzly Bisri - were appealing against a High Court decision on Dec 24 last year that dismissed the application.

Today, a three-judge panel, chaired by Datuk Hashim Hamzah, in a unanimous decision ruled that the judicial review application filed by the appellants on April 23, 2024, was clearly out of time.

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In delivering the decision, Judge Hashim said the appellants had argued that their application was submitted within the stipulated time frame, based on a letter dated March 29, 2024, sent to the respondent.

The letter stated that if no response was received within seven days, the appellants would assume that their request for a special allocation had been rejected, making April 5, 2024, the final date of the response period.

However, Judge Hashim, sitting with Judge Datuk Azmi Ariffin and Judge Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz, noted that the respondent contended the application for leave to ​​commence judicial review and the supporting affidavit did not specifically state the date of the decision sought to be challenged.

He said the respondent had argued that the relevant date for determining the time frame should be Sept 10, 2023, when MUDA withdrew from the Unity government.

"Regarding this issue, we have examined the supporting affidavit, which stated that after MUDA withdrew from the Unity government led by the first respondent (the Prime Minister), access to the myKHAS system, which manages applications for the RM2 million development allocation for the Muar parliamentary constituency, was revoked.

“Following that, the remaining RM500,000 and all projects that had been applied for and approved were also cancelled,” he said during a proceeding conducted via video conference.

According to the judge, the court was also of the view that the appellants were already aware that a decision regarding the constituency allocation had been made as of the date MUDA withdrew from the Unity government.

“Therefore, we agree with the respondent’s submission that the decision date is on Sept 10, 2023, and the three-month limitation period ended on Dec 10, 2023.

“The application filed on April 23, 2024, is therefore clearly out of time. We find that the High Court judge did not err in terms of fact or law in arriving at that decision,” he said.

Since the main issue has been decided, Judge Hashim said, the other ancillary issues are no longer relevant.

Accordingly, the decision of the High Court judge is upheld, and the appellants’ appeal is dismissed. We make no order as to costs as this case involves public interest," he said.

 In today's proceedings, lawyer Lim Wei Jiet represented the four appellants, while senior federal counsel Nurhafizza Azizan represented the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government.

Syed Saddiq and three Muar voters filed the judicial review application on April 23 last year. They named the Prime Minister and the Malaysian government as the first and second respondents, respectively.

They were seeking a court order to quash the government’s decision to withhold RM500,000 from a total of RM1.7 million that was supposed to be directly channelled to the bank account of the Muar Parliamentary Service Centre for welfare, community well-being, and disaster relief programmes.

Additionally, they requested the court to reinstate Syed Saddiq's access to the myKHAS system, which manages the RM2 million development fund for the constituency, and 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 the 'Projek Mesra Rakyat' or similar initiatives for the year 2024.

They contend that the respondents violated Syed Saddiq's right to equality as an 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.

-- BERNAMA