By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, June 18: The Sabah Law Society (SLS) is set to proceed with its judicial review on Sabah’s entitlement to a 40 per cent revenue grant after the Court of Appeal dismissed the federal government’s appeal against the leave granted for the review.
The ruling was delivered via online proceedings today (June 18) by Court of Appeal judges Datuk Ravinthran N. Paramaguru, Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, and Datuk Choo Kah Sing.
Justice Ravinthran, reading out the decision, directed the High Court to schedule a full hearing for the judicial review application, according to a news report by TVS quoting Bernama.
The federal government had appealed against the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s Nov 11, 2022 decision, which granted SLS leave to seek a judicial review on the matter to compel the return of 40 per cent of federal revenue earned from Sabah as stipulated by the Federal Constitution.
Justice Ismail Brahim had previously ruled that SLS had locus standi to proceed, citing the public interest nature of the litigation.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had obtained a stay order to halt the High Court from hearing the case’s merits pending the appeal.
SLS filed the judicial review application in 2022, seeking to annul the federal government’s gazette of a RM125.6 million annual grant for Sabah, claiming it violated the State’s revenue rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Justice Ravinthran, delivering the unanimous verdict, affirmed that SLS has established locus standi for the judicial review as public interest litigation. He highlighted that the application involves significant constitutional issues aimed at upholding Sabah’s constitutional rights for the benefit of its people.
He said it was not taken on personal grounds or grievances of SLS.
“Whether there is merit in this application (judicial review) or otherwise is a matter that should be addressed in the full hearing (at the High Court),” he said.
He added that denying SLS the opportunity to discuss the issue at this stage would be a step backward and inconsistent with recent legal developments.
He emphasised that the judicial review’s subject matter could indeed be adjudicated and that SLS is not challenging the validity of the special grant for Sabah but is focusing on the alleged missing ‘lost years’.
“If that were the case, it would immediately attract a justiciability argument as it is a matter agreed upon by the federal and Sabah governments.
“SLS is also not asking the court to conduct a review under Article 112 (of the Federal Constitution). That would also attract justiciability arguments as the court is not equipped to handle such a matter,” the judge said.
The ‘lost years’ refer to Sabah’s 48-year period awaiting the second mandatory review of the State’s 40 per cent revenue grant, originally due by 1974 but only undertaken in 2022.
Justice Ravinthran concluded that the issues raised by the federal government lack merit in the context of this unprecedented judicial review application, leading to the dismissal of the appeal.
Senior federal counsels from the AGC, Shamsul Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi, as well as federal counsel V. Krishna Priya @ Venugopaland acted for the federal government, while SLS was represented by counsels Dr David Fung and Jeyan TM Marimuttu.
Sabah State Attorney-General Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof and the Special Legal Advisor to the Chief Minister, Datuk Brenndon Keith Soh, appeared for the Sabah government as intervenors.
Earlier, the panel sought confirmation of Messrs FT Ahmad & Co’s withdrawal from the case and the withdrawal of all submissions made by the counsel for the Sabah government, which Nor Asiah confirmed.
Brenndon informed the panel that the Sabah government would not appeal against today’s ruling and accepted the outcome, allowing the matter to be fully examined on its merits at the substantive hearing of the judicial review. — DayakDaily
