KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): The federal government has filed an appeal at the country’s apex court to stop the Sabah Law Society’s (SLS) bid to seek a judicial review of the state’s 40% revenue grant.

Senior federal counsels Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi and Shamsul Bolhassan both confirmed with The Edge that the attorney general (AG) had filed a bid for leave to appeal against SLS’ judicial review.

SLS had filed the judicial review application in 2022 to overturn the federal government’s gazette of a RM125.6 million annual grant for Sabah, claiming that it violated the state’s revenue rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Shamsul told The Edge that there were four main questions of law that they are seeking for the Federal Court to clarify.

On June 18, the Court of Appeal had dismissed the government’s appeal against SLS’ leave bid for judicial review. The appeal filed at the apex court by the AG will be the final appeal.

If the government loses again, the case will be directed back to the High Court for a full hearing of SLS’ judicial review application.

The federal government was appealing against the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s decision on November 11, 2022, to grant SLS leave (permission) to seek a judicial review on the matter in order to compel the return of 40% of federal revenue earned from the state according to the Federal Constitution.

On November 11, 2022, High Court judge Ismail Brahim granted SLS’ application for leave for the judicial review, ruling that SLS had locus standi (legal standing) for a judicial review as it was a public interest litigation.

The Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) obtained a stay order to stop the High Court from hearing the merits of the case pending the appeal at the Court of Appeal.

In the Court of Appeal’s decision, which was unanimous, COA judge Datuk Ravinthran N Paramaguru said the SLS has at the very least established locus standi for a judicial review as it is clearly a public interest litigation taken for the benefit of the public.

He said it was not taken to seek redress for a personal wrong or grievance of the SLS.

The focus of the judicial review application is the alleged omission in the Review Order 2022 to account for the missing ‘lost years’.

The ‘lost years’ is referred to by Sabahans as a 48-year period of a second mandatory review of the state’s 40% revenue grant originally due by 1974, but was only undertaken in 2022.