By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, May 8: Dato Sri Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib and Dato Sri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib are now the administrators of the estates of their late father, Governor Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and late mother Datuk Patinggi Puan Sri Laila Taib respectively.
This was the latest turn of events in the legal suit which Taib’s sons Sulaiman and Abu Bekir have filed against Taib’s wife Datuk Patinggi Raghad Kurdi Tiab and RHB Investment Bank Berhad (RHB) to pave way for an injunction to be placed over the disposal of Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS) shares under Raghad.
The plaintiff’s counsel Alvin Chong submitted affidavits supported by two separate Letters of Administration, certified by the probate office.
Despite so, defence counsel for Raghad, Alvin Yong and defence counsel for RHB, Tan Kee Heng continued to implore the court to go back to the fundamentals, reiterating that the case should be struck out.
Judge Alexander Siew who is presiding over the case, however, believed that the issue raised in a past hearing with regards to the point of jurisdiction should be dealt with first following the queries raised by the defence over whether the presiding High Court has jurisdiction over the matters pertaining to the assets of Muslims since Raghad is a Muslimah.
After seeking clarifications from all the counsels on the jurisdictional issue, Siew ruled that the Court needed to determine whether the case should be trialed under the Civil Court or the Syariah Court first, before it should go further to ascertain whether the case should be struck out.
Based on Order 33 Rule 2 of the Rules of Court, he ordered that the jurisdictional issue be tried before the trial of the suit and fix pre-trial case management (PTCM) on May 14, 2024 where Enclosure 183 (amended application following Abu Bekir becoming the administrator of the late Taib’s estate) and Enclosure 186 (amended application after Sulaiman becoming the administrator of the late Laila’s estate) will also be mentioned.
On the request for costs by Yong and Tan for the withdrawal of Enclosure 132 (application to enjoin Taib as the third defendant) by Chong, Siew decided that the application should be struck out without costs as the case had been overtaken by events following Taib’s passing on Feb 21, 2024. — DayakDaily
