KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Former Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and 12 other individuals today failed in their bid to obtain leave to challenge the decision of the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in rejecting their application to register Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) as a political party.
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This followed a decision by High Court Judge Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya in allowing the objection by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to the leave application for judicial review filed by them.
Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly said the court found that the applicants had failed to comply with the provision under Section 18 of the Societies Act 1966 where they should have first appealed the matter to the Home Minister.
The court dismissed the application with cost of RM2,000, he said when contacted by reporters after proceeding of the case via the Zoom application before Judge Mariana today.
Last Jan 25, the AGC objected to the application by Syed Saddiq and the 12 individuals on the grounds that the applicants did not appeal to Hamzah first before filing a judicial review as provided under Section 18 of the Societies Act 1966 and they had 30 days from Jan 6 to submit their appeal.
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They had filed the application on Jan 12 and named RoS and the Home Minister as the first and second respondents to seek an order to quash RoS’ decision in refusing to register MUDA as a political party under Section 7 of the Societies Act 1966.
Syed Saddiq, who is also former Bersatu Armada chief, in his supporting affidavit, said they received the letter from RoS on Jan 6, which stated that MUDA’s application did not meet the First Schedule of the Societies Act 1966 and that the application was rejected in accordance with Section 7 (3) (e) of the Act.
“There is negligence on the part of RoS in not explaining in detail the sub paragraph or provision under the First Schedule which is not complied with by MUDA. We could not find out about the alleged non-compliance and could not correct it.
“MUDA has fully complied with all the provisions of the First Schedule of the Societies Act 1966. Therefore, there is no basis to reject the application to register MUDA,” he said.- BERNAMA