KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and the Registrar of Societies (ROS) have appealed the High Court’s decision to temporarily halt the deregistration of Perikatan Nasional (PN).
The appeal was filed at the Court of Appeal on Friday (Oct 23), challenging the ruling made by High Court judge Datuk Azizan Arshad on Oct 22.
The notice sighted by The Edge was filed through the senior federal counsel from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The appeal arose from Azizan’s judgement on Thursday which granted PN a stay on its deregistration pending the full hearing of its substantive judicial review. The High Court order had cleared the way for the opposition coalition to contest the upcoming Nov 14 Melaka election under its own banner.
In granting the stay on Thursday, Azizan held that exceptional circumstances warranted the order, citing PN’s political role and the implications for its elected representatives and state governments.
The judge added that granting the stay would cause no prejudice, as the coalition could still be monitored for any political activity that contravenes the law.
The court wrangle follows the ROS’ decision to deregister PN on Tuesday (Oct 20) after determining that its reply to a show-cause letter was inadequate. The regulator had acted on a complaint lodged by component party Bersatu, which alleged it was excluded from a July 16 supreme council meeting.
The ROS had issued a show-cause notice under Section 13(2) of the Societies Act 1966 on Sept 22, along with a suspension notice under Section 13(2A) on Sept 23, giving PN 30 days to reply. On Oct 5, PN filed its judicial review application seeking to quash both notices and declare them null and void.