KOTA KINABALU (Oct 22): The Sabah State Government remains a party to the appeal of the Sabah Law Society (SLS) to pursue its judicial review of Sabah’s 40 per cent constitutional entitlement, said SLS immediate past president Datuk Roger Chin.
In a landmark decision, the Federal Court on Oct 17 unanimously rejected the Federal Attorney-General’s (AG) application to appeal against granting leave to the SLS to pursue its judicial review.
This critical review challenges a 2022 Federal Government Order, issued under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution, regarding Sabah’s special grant.
Chin said the Sabah state government was not named as a party to this application by the Federal AG, and as such, the state was not required to appear before the Federal Court.
However, he said the state’s position was already on record, as reflected in the Court of Appeal’s grounds of decision.
“In paragraph 4 of the Court of Appeal’s decision, it was noted that after the appeal hearing concluded the Sabah Attorney General (SAG) informed the Deputy Registrar that the appointment of the private practitioner representing the State had been revoked. The SAG further confirmed in person the withdrawal of all arguments presented by the counsel and expressed satisfaction for the case to proceed to a substantive hearing, allowing the matter to be fully addressed on its merits.
“The State, therefore, endorsed the view that leave should be granted to the Sabah Law Society, permitting the judicial review (JR) to be heard on its merits by the High Court. This position affirms that the State supported SLS’s action in seeking leave for the JR to proceed,” he said in a statement.
Chin added it is essential to clarify that during the Court of Appeal proceedings, the SAG withdrew only the submissions made on behalf of the State.
Thus, it is evident that the State remains a party to the ongoing High Court proceedings, he said.
The judicial review will now proceed to its next phase, where the merits of the case will be evaluated by the High Court in Kota Kinabalu.
Case management has been scheduled for Oct 30, where directions for the next steps will be issued.
On Oct 19, Parti Warisan legal advisor Chin Tek Ming issued a statement lambasting the state government on the withdrawal as a party to the judicial review filed by SLS.
Chin claimed that paragraph 3 of the Broad Grounds provided by the Federal Court dated Oct 17, 2024 states that “the State Government of Sabah is no longer a party to these proceedings having withdrawn from the same, prior to the hearing before the Court of Appeal”.
“That means even before the hearing in the Court of Appeal, the State Government had withdrawn herself as a party to the proceeding,” he claimed.
He also claimed subsequent moves and clarifications by the GRS government that the then counsel Datuk Tengku Fuad Ahmad had no authority to act on behalf of the state government and the state government is still very concerned to champion for the return of the 40 per cent are purely a “Hollywood movie and political manoeuvre” to mislead Sabahans.