PUTRAJAYA (Sept 24): The Sarawak government and national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) want their petitions concerning state oil rights to be heard separately.
However, they revealed on Thursday, before a lone Federal Court judge Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang, that they could not agree on who should present their case first, with the hearing fixed tentatively for one week starting Jan 25 next year.
The Sarawak government also wants the apex court to decide a preliminary issue first — the legitimacy of the colonial-era Order in Council 1954, which determines the borders of Sarawak and Sabah.
Given this disagreement, Rhodzariah set Oct 1 for the court to possibly rule on the sequence of hearings and other preliminary issues.
PETRONAS counsel Datuk Dr Cyrus Das told Rhodzariah that parties have narrowed down the issues for the apex court to 10 or 11, and that the separately filed petitions are not consolidated.
Das said that since PETRONAS filed its petition first (for referral), the apex court should hear the company’s petition first.
"For PETRONAS as the petition was filed first, on Jan 10 this year, and leave (permission) was granted by the Federal Court on March 16, the company felt that its petition [should] be decided first," he said.
The Sarawak government filed its petition on Feb 23, he noted.
While this marks no change to PETRONAS' earlier request for the petitions to be heard separately, the Sarawak government — which initially had no objection to hearing both together — now wants its own petition heard first, as conveyed by senior state counsel Mohd Adzrul Adzlan.
Mohd Adzrul told reporters that the state also wants a preliminary issue decided — the legitimacy of the colonial-era Order in Council law on its boundaries, which PETRONAS is understood to oppose.
Rhodzariah said since the hearing date fixed for the end of January next year is still far, the parties could discuss this, and she fixed Oct 1 for case management to resolve the sequence and other preliminary matters.
PETRONAS' petition questions the applicability of several Sarawak laws, including the Environment (Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emission) Ordinance 2023 and the Sarawak Oil Mining Ordinance 1958, while Sarawak's petition challenges three federal laws: the Petroleum Development Act 1974, the Continental Shelf Act 1966, and the Petroleum Mining Act 1966.
The legal dispute marks one of the consequential constitutional clashes between Sarawak and PETRONAS over jurisdiction and oil and gas rights in the state, since the formation of Petroleum Sarawak Bhd to govern those resources.
In this apex court case, PETRONAS had named the Sarawak government and the federal government as respondents in the petition while the Sarawak government named PETRONAS and the federal government as respondents in its petition.
Both cases are heard jointly during case management on Thursday before Rhodzariah.
Besides Das, PETRONAS is represented by Khoo Guan Huat, Datuk Azian Abd Aziz, Grace Teoh Wei Shan, Ahmad Faiz Razali, Khoo Yuan Ping and Alex Ngu.
For Sarawak, besides Mohd Adzrul, the state is represented by Sarawak counsel Richard Tie Sing Wan and Felicity Sharmela Thomas while senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi and federal counsel Imtiyaz Wizni Aufa Othman represent the federal government.
It is to be noted that the dissolution of the Sarawak state assembly is scheduled for later this year, paving the way for state elections, which are widely speculated to be held in November, though no official date has been announced.