SEVEN civil society groups which have filed a suit against the government to have the state of emergency declared unconstitutional will have their application heard on July 22 in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid fixed the date today.

The groups filed the public interest suit on February 2. The emergency was declared on January 12. It was granted by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong on the government’s recommendation, ostensibly to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, but has been criticised as being a move to avoid parliamentary oversight.

Besides a declaration that the emergency is unconstitutional, the groups are also seeking declarations on whether Section 14 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance, which suspends Parliament, and Article 150(8) of the federal constitution, which ousts the jurisdiction of the courts, are unconstitutional.

The groups involved are The Coalition for Clean and Fair Election (Bersih 2.0), Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Aliran, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH), Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia and Save Rivers. 

“What we are seeking today is not only regarding this emergency,” the group’s lawyer, New Sin Yew, spoke to reporters later outside the courtroom.

“We are contending that the 1981 amendments to Article 150(8) are null and void because of the ouster clause that excluded the court’s scrutiny,” he said.

At the same court hearing on July 22, the High Court will also hear the application by two PKR leaders who were allowed to be intervenors in the groups’ suit. 

There are altogether 10 questions of the law that the groups and intervenors have posed. 

The groups are seeking to refer these questions from the High Court to the Federal Court for the judiciary to interpret Article 150 of the federal constitution. The article deals with the proclamation of an emergency.

One of it wrote: “Given that both Houses of Parliament had not been dissolved but only stood adjourned, whether the Proclamation of Emergency issued on 11 January 2021 and the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 promulgated on 14 January 2021 had to be laid before both Houses of Parliament without undue delay pursuant to Article 150(3) of the Federal Constitution.”

The politicians who are intervenors are from PKR, Senator Mohd Yusmaidi Mohd Yusoff and Hang Tuah Jaya MP Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.

Besides the PKR members, other intervenors allowed in the lawsuit are three PAS lawmakers, Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari and the party’s two senators Khairil Nizam Khirudin and Mohd Apandi Mohamad. – May 3, 2021.