THE Court of Appeal today unanimously dismissed jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s suit to declare the National Security Council (NSC) Act 2016 unconstitutional.

Lawyer Latheefa Koya, who is representing Anwar, said the case was dismissed because the court feels that the application by Anwar questioning the competence of Parliament, which is not disputed, is not valid.

“We are not talking about the right of Parliament to enact the act… we are saying that by doing so, by passing the law, you (Parliament) went against the basic structure of the constitution.

“That’s the difference. So, we will be taking it up to the Federal Court,” she said at the Palace of Justice, Putrajaya.

Latheefa said the matter is not over as it goes to the Federal Court.

“We have a month from the decision to do take the matter up. We will put in an application for leave to challenge the appeal.

“Previously, there was a cost of RM3,000 but we never sought any cost because we view this as a public-interest matter.”

In passing her judgment, judge Rohana Yusuf said pertaining to the leave of application to the case, the judges agree that, in essence, it is questioning the legislative competence of Parliament in enacting the amendment.

“We hold ourselves bound by the decisions of the Federal Court so we affirm the ruling,” she said.

Other members of the panel are Ahmadi Asnawi and Dr Badariah Suhamid. Acting for the respondents are senior federal counsels Amarjeet Singh and Suzana Atan.

Anwar filed the suit in 2016 seeking an injunction to prevent the NSC from exercising its powers under the act.

He is also seeking for Article 66(4) of the federal constitution to be declared unconstitutional.

Latheefa said in the original constitution, Article 66(4) ensured that a law can only be passed with royal assent, but after the amendments in 1983, 1984 and 1994, the check and balance afforded to the rulers was diluted.

She said the amendment to Article 66(4) was fundamentally altered from the way in which it read.

Article 66(4) and (4A) now permits a bill to become law 30 days after it is passed, even without royal assent. It then comes into force upon being gazetted.

The NSC Act did not receive express royal assent and was gazetted without amendments, even though the Conference of Rulers said it wanted to refine some of the provisions. – November 6, 2017.