THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed March 14 to decide whether it or the Federal Court will hear an originating summons filed by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to challenge the constitutionality of the National Security Council (NSC) Act 2016.

Judge Nordin Hassan set the date in chambers during case management today, where parties involved filed their written submissions. Also present at the proceedings were Anwar’s lawyer Gopal Sri Ram and senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, representing the NSC and government.

“The senior federal counsel and I agreed to refer to the Federal Court the question as to the constitutionality of the amending acts which progressively removed the requirement for royal assent. 

“The learned judge has quite rightly decided to take time to go through the questions and see whether he will refer them in the form of a special case or whether he will need to amend them or whether he will hear the questions himself without the necessity of making a reference. 

“That is in his discretion. There is no obligation on the judge to automatically refer (the matter to the Federal Court),” Sri Ram told reporters outside the court. 

The NSC Act was passed in 2016, but did not receive royal assent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and came into force on August 1, 2016, pursuant to Article 66(4A) of the Federal Constitution which removed the need for the King’s assent to cause a bill to be published as law. 

Anwar is challenging the constitutionality of those amending acts on the grounds that it removes the requirement of royal assent, which he contends is part of the basic structure of the Federal Constitution. 

In his civil action filed on August 2, 2016, Anwar claimed that the implementation of the NSC Act 2016 was unconstitutional and void. He is seeking to invalidate the NSC Act in his bid to restore the power of the King on royal assent.

Anwar’s originating summons was struck out by the high court on grounds that the legal challenge should have been filed at the Federal Court as it involved legislative competence by Parliament.

Anwar lost his appeal at the appellate court, which was dismissed on November 6, 2017. In March last year, the Federal Court granted him leave to appeal against the decision. – February 27, 2019.