PUTRAJAYA (Nov 4): The group of six Negeri Sembilan deposed Undangs and chieftains will have to answer the committal proceedings at the Seremban High Court.
A three-member bench led by Datuk Dr Alwi Abdul Wahab on Wednesday refused to grant a stay of the committal proceedings ordered by High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain. The decision at the higher Court of Appeal was unanimous.
The proceedings are scheduled for case management before Roz Mawar on Nov 17.
The six are former Undangs Datuk Maarof Mat Rashid and Datuk Abd Rahim Yasin, Datuk Mubarak Thahak whose status as the Undang is under dispute, and Undang for Johol Datuk Muhammed Abdullah as well as Tunku Besar Tampin Tunku Syed Razman Tunku Syed Idrus Al Qadri, and Datuk Shahbandar Sungai Ujong Datuk Seri Badarudin Abdul Khalid.
They had wanted a stay of the hearing of the committal proceedings against them pending the hearing of their appeal at the appellate court, which has yet to be fixed.
Datuk Amarjeet Singh Serjit Singh, who sat on the bench with Datuk Dr Shahnaz Sulaiman, said the issue raised by the Undangs and chieftains over their purported immunity should be decided after, and not before, the substantive stage of the committal proceedings is heard.
"The very issue ought to be fully ventilated and determined at the committal proceedings during the substantive stage," Amarjeet said in reading the bench’s decision.
The bench ordered the six to pay a total of RM60,000 costs to Dewan Keadilan dan Undang (DKU) and its secretary Raja Norazli Raja Nordin.
The contempt proceedings were initiated by the DKU and Raja Norazli after they secured a temporary injunction order on June 5 to preserve the status quo amid customary and constitutional crises in Negeri Sembilan.
Later on that day, however, the group of six installed and proclaimed Tunku Datuk Seri Nadzaruddin Tuanku Jaafar as the new Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan.
Amarjeet: They did not come with clean hands
Besides ruling that the hearing of their claim of immunity over contempt is to proceed, Amarjeet said the six Undangs did not come with clean hands before the court.
This, the judge added, follows that they had filed a separate application before the Kuala Lumpur High Court after the leave (permission) gained by the DKU and Raja Norazli to initiate contempt on them was granted by Roz Mawar on July 8.
It was reported that on July 17, the six named the Negeri Sembilan menteri besar and the state government as respondents.
They are seeking an order to compel Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Ismail Lasim to sign their proclamation document to remove current Yang di-Pertuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as the state’s Ruler, and a further proclamation that Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Jaafar is the 12th Yang di-Pertuan Besar.
Amarjeet said initiating the parallel proceedings before a separate High Court and in Kuala Lumpur seems to be a challenge over the subject matter of their present appeal.
“They actively sought relief to remove His Highness the Yang di-Pertuan Besar when there is a live ad interim order for injunction and committal proceedings granted against them.
“They approached this matter without clean hands,” the judge said.
For these reasons, Amarjeet said the bench was not allowing the stay and ordered the committal proceedings to be heard expeditiously in the interests of the administration of justice.
It is to be noted that the six had withdrawn the Kuala Lumpur judicial review application on Oct 7, as they said they want to concentrate on the ongoing proceedings in Seremban.
The DKU and Raja Norazli were represented by counsels Datuk Steven Thiru, Mohd Shafrin Abd Halim, and Gurjeevan Singh Sachdev, while Asmawi Ismail and Nur Asnani Mohd Basharuddin appeared for the former Undangs and chieftains.
Thiru told The Edge that besides the contempt for holding the event on June 5, there are two other leave applications filed by the DKU and Raja Norazli for contempt, the first being for evading receipt of the committal documents following the decision on June 5, and the Undangs’ initiation of the Kuala Lumpur judicial review.