KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar wants the High Court to expedite the hearing of its bid to refer several constitutional questions over the proclamation of emergency to the Federal Court.
Lawyer Abdul Rashid Ismail informed judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid that the Bar filed the reference application under Section 84 of Courts of Judicature Act last Friday.
“We also filed a certificate of urgency on this,” he said.
Last month, the Bar filed a lawsuit to nullify several provisions of the Emergency Ordinance, saying they were unconstitutional.
Among the provisions of the Emergency Ordinance that the Bar wants to be declared unconstitutional are Sections 5, 11(a) and (b), 14, 15 and 18 of Emergency Ordinance No 1, which deals with compensation for assets, executive and legislative power, parliamentary and state legislative sittings, and prevailing law.
According to Rashid, the High Court is also due to hear the reference bids from several NGOs and human rights activists on the same issue on July 22.
The groups want the Federal Court to determine the validity of amendments to Article 150(8) of the Federal Constitution that touch on the proclamation of emergency, and whether the courts have jurisdiction to look into the matter.
“Their issues are similar to ours. So, we suggest the court hear our application on the same day, or earlier, so this court can make one decision instead of two decisions,” he said.
However, Kamal fixed May 19 for further case management on the Bar’s reference bid.
Federal counsel Mohammad Sallehuddin Md Ali represented the government and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in the civil action.
Besides the NGOs and the Bar, individuals such as former Umno leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan and lawyer Syed Iskandar Jaafar al-Mahdzar also filed lawsuits over the emergency proclamation.-FMT