Petronas’ bid to postpone Sarawak’s SST suit dismissed
KUCHING: High Court Judicial Commissioner Christopher Chin yesterday fixed March 13 to hear Sarawak’s bid to recover about RM1.3 billion in unpaid State Sales Tax (SST) from Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).
In dismissing Petronas’ application to postpone the hearing, he said he found the corporation did not have good reason to apply for a stay of proceeding just because it was appealing against his earlier decision to dismiss its application to recuse him.
Explaining why Petronas’ application to get him recused had no merit, Chin maintained there would be no case of actual or real danger of bias of the judicial commissioner, as opposed to the perceived bias that the corporation had tried to point out in this case.
“As my earlier decision not to recuse is based substantially on the protection of the institution of the judiciary, it must necessary follow that I now refuse the stay of ( Petronas’) application,” he said via a summary judgment delivered to the press a er the court proceeding.
The civil suit against Petronas was filed by the SST Comptroller and the Sarawak government, which are represented by State A orneyGeneral Datuk Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid, state legal counsel Dato Sri JC Fong and legal officers from Talat’s office.
He then filed an originating summons in the Kuching High Court on June 7 the same year to challenge the DUN’s decision, with the court subsequently ruling on June 17 that it was unlawful for the DUN to disqualify Dr Ting as an assemblyman.
Following an appeal filed by the DUN, the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 decision on July 13, 2018 affirmed the High Court’s decision to reinstate Dr Ting, with presiding judge Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim ruling that the DUN had no jurisdiction to decide on Dr Ting’s disqualification as the disqualifying factor had happened before the election.
The Federal Court granted the application for leave to appeal against the decision of the High Court and Court of Appeal later that month.
Following yesterday’s Federal Court ruling, Mohd Asfia took to Instagram to explain the court’s decision.
“The majority decision of the Federal Court found that the majority decision of the Court of Appeal was wrong because Article 17(1)(g) of the State Constitution read with Article 19(1) of State Constitution gives the power to DUN to disqualify (Dr) Ting, who from inception had this continuing disqualification having acquired Australian citizenship.
“This is unforgivable and it involves the question of loyalty to Malaysia. There was also no breach of ‘natural justice’ by the Speaker,” he said in his post.
Bernama, meanwhile, also reported Election Commission officers following the case in court as saying that it would be up to Mohd Asfia as DUN Speaker to decide whether to seek a by-election.
This is because the vacancy in Pujut comes less than two years from the end of the current term of the DUN, which is in June next year, said the report.