Federal Court throws out bids to challenge PM's request to dissolve Parliament

The Federal Court today dismissed the applications by a former MP and a Pandan voter for leave to pursue their appeals to challenge former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's request to dissolve Parliament which paved the way for the 15th general election (GE15).

A three-member panel comprising Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Mary Lim Thiam Suan dismissed the applications of former Klang MP Charles Santiago and Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar with no order as to costs.

In delivering the court's decision, Nallini said GE15 had been completed, a new government installed and Parliament convened.

She said the court was constrained to exercise its discretion to uphold the preliminary objection by the government, Ismail and the Election Commission (EC).

Nallini said the current state of the new government could not exist without the initial request for the dissolution of Parliament, adding that it was not possible to divorce the results from the events that commenced from the request for the dissolution.

In their notices of motion seeking for leave to pursue their appeals at the Federal Court, Santiago and Syed Iskandar had raised several questions of law for the Federal Court to determine.

They had separately filed legal actions at the High Court to challenge the then prime minister's advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve Parliament, which paved the way for the EC to hold GE15.

However, they lost their cases in the High Court on Oct 28 last year. Their appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Nov 15, prompting them to file leave to appeal applications to the Federal Court.

In the proceedings which were conducted online, federal counsel Low Wen Zhen, representing Ismail, the government and the EC in Syed Iskandar’s case, and lawyer Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, representing these three in Santiago's case, argued that the court should not grant leave as the matter had become academic.
 
Low said GE15 had been held, with its results announced and gazetted, and that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had appointed Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister on Nov 24 last year after conferring with the Conference of Rulers and in accordance with the Agong's powers under the Federal Constitution.

The court earlier heard submissions from lawyers Gopal Sri Ram and Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, representing Syed Iskandar and Santiago respectively.

Sri Ram argued that the court should give leave as the question of law proposed related to whether the request by the prime minister for the dissolution of Parliament was justiciable.

He said the Federal Court's decision would provide guidance to legal advisers to the government if a similar challenge occurred in the future.