PUTRAJAYA (Nov 24): The Emergency Proclamation made in January to deter the spread of Covid-19 is valid law as the court cannot intervene in the matter due to an ouster clause.
A three-member Court of Appeal led by Datuk Has Zanah Mehat said this in dismissing the appeal by four Member of Parliaments (MPs) and an assemblyman, including opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, over the validity of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) as announced by then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that also led to the suspension of Parliament seatings.
"The court finds the challenge on the EO is not amenable to a judicial review and to grant a judicial review would be an exercise of futility.
"This follows the presence of an ouster clause in Article 150(8) of the Federal Constitution which provides the validity of a Proclamation of Emergency and any ordinance promulgated that such a proclamation could not be challenged by the courts."
'The court finds no error in law by the three separate High Court judges in dismissing the judicial review and hence, we dismiss this appeal," Justice Has Zanah said.
Sitting with her were Justices Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim.
The bench made no order as to costs.
Besides Anwar, who is the Port Dickson MP, the others who tried to challenge the EO proclamation were Pulai MP Datuk Seri Salehuddin Ayob, Sungai Petani MP Datuk Johari Abdul, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim and Tebing Tinggi assemblyman Dr Abdul Aziz Bari.
Hassan had filed his application in the Johor Baru High Court, while Anwar, along with Salehuddin, Johari and Abdul Aziz, filed two separate applications in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
All of them were dismissed by three separate High Court judges who heard the applications and some did not grant leave (permission) to hear the merits of the applications, resulting in the appeal.
Initially, the Court of Appeal heard the separate appeals but later all three cases were combined.
Anwar was represented by Ramkarpal Singh and Sangeet Kaur Deo, while Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar and Christopher Leong appeared for the remaining four.
Senior federal counsels Suzana Atan and S Narkunavathy appeared for Muhyiddin and the federal government.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Jan 12 consented to declaring a state of emergency until Aug 1, 2021 to control the spread of Covid-19.
However, the King later stated that Parliament was allowed to convene during the emergency period, and urged for it to be reconvened “as soon as possible” to allow lawmakers to debate the EO and the National Recovery Plan.
On July 26, after mounting pressure from the opposition and the monarch, Parliament finally reconvened for a special sitting scheduled for five days.
However, the session was cut short due to an apparent Covid-19 outbreak, after which Parliament was suspended on the fourth day of the special sitting.
Subsequently, the Dewan Rakyat last month agreed to repeal the EO.