High Court dismisses application over State Assembly dissolution

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court yesterday dismissed an application by 33 assemblymen for leave for a judicial review of the decision of the Yang Dipertua Negeri in dissolving the Sabah State Legislative Assembly on July 30.

Judicial Commissioner Leonard David Shim found that the second respondent in the case – caretaker Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal – had acted within the Sabah Constitution in requesting the first respondent – Yang Dipertua Negeri Sabah Tun Juhar Mahiruddin – to dissolve the State Assembly.

“And the first respondent (Tun Juhar) had acted within the ambit of his constitutional power to dissolve the State Assembly,” he said when ruling on the ma er yesterday.

Almost immediately a er the ruling was handed down, the 33 assemblymen filed an appeal against the High Court’s decision.

The 33 assemblymen were led by former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, who is Sungai Sibuga assemblyman.

Shim also said the proclamation to dissolve the State Assembly was ‘constitutional and valid’.

In announcing the ruling yesterday, he said the court looked into the substance rather than the form of the wri en request (le er by Mohd Shafie to Tun Juhar on dissolution of the State Assembly).

The 33 applicants’ contention

And the first respondent ( Tun Juhar) had acted within the ambit of his constitutional power to dissolve the State Assembly. Judicial Commissioner Leonard David Shim

was that the le er was invalid and incapable of invoking the Yang Dipertua Negeri’s power to dissolve the State Assembly and therefore, it was ultra vires the Sabah Constitution and justiciable.

However, Shim viewed the decision to dissolve the Assembly and the proclamation were not amenable to a judicial review; thus non-justiciable.

The judicial commissioner also found that the 33 applicants had locus standi in that they had a real and genuine interest in the ma er (Tun Juhar’s decision to dissolve the Assembly).

“A er considering the affidavits, wri en and oral submissions (by the applicants’ counsel), the applicants have met the threshold of locus standi.”

The applicants were represented by a team of lawyers led by Tengku Fuad Ahmad, while Tun Juhar, Mohd Shafie and the third respondent, the Government of Sabah, were represented by Sabah A orneyGeneral Brenndon Keith Soh.

Senior Federal Counsel Suzana Atan and S Narkunavathy represented the Election Commission, the fourth respondent.

In their application for the leave for judicial review, Musa and the assemblymen backing him are seeking court orders to quash Mohd Shafie’s request to Tun Juhar to dissolve the Assembly; to quash the proclamation of the dissolution of the Assembly; and to quash the Sabah government gaze e notification on the dissolution.

The 33 elected representatives claimed on July 29 that they made up the majority in the State Assembly and wanted Tun Juhar to swear in a new government; thus toppling the state government under Mohd Shafie’s leadership.

Mohd Shafie, who is Semporna MP and incumbent assemblyman for Senallang, pre-empted Musa’s move by advising Tun Juhar to dissolve the State Assembly, which had 65 members at that time – 60 elected and five nominated.

In July last year, the Dewan Rakyat approved a Bill that provides for the Sabah State Assembly to have 73 seats – 13 more than in the dissolved assembly.