KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 11): The High Court has given the greenlight for former Lembaga Tabung Haji chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim to pursue his case against the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for allegedly unilaterally cancelling a prior agreement of the settled payment of over RM4 million in tax and penalties.
Speaking to reporters following Wednesday's decision, Abdul Azeez's lawyer Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad said that High Court judge Indra Nehru Savandiah decided that there are merits in the leave (permission) application.
The court will now proceed to hear the substantive issues of the case at a later date.
Amer added that a temporary two-week stay was also granted.
"We hope that the IRB will not take any follow-up actions while the judicial review case is ongoing, which is why we applied for the stay order," said Amer.
Further, he said that both sides agreed to hold a case management next Monday (Nov 16) to finalise the hearing date for the stay order application, while also fixing the hearing date for the judicial review itself.
Besides Amer, Abdul Azeez is also represented by Nicholas Mark Pereira. Senior Federal Counsel (SFC) Ng Siew Wee appeared for the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).
SFC Ng confirmed the matter with The Edge when contacted.
In his application filed in September, Abdul Azeez is seeking to quash the IRB's decision to single-handedly cancel their Feb 9, 2022 agreement and the subsequent notice of composite assessment dated March 22, 2022 for the assessment years of 2011 to 2020.
Among others, the former Baling parliamentarian is contending that the agreement and subsequent composite assessment notice is final and conclusive per the law, and is also asking for a court order compelling the IRB to abide by the agreement.
The AGC objected to the leave on the grounds that investigations are ongoing and that the legal challenge is premature.
They contend that for now, Azeez is not required to pay any fresh assessment sum and that the legal challenge hinges on his presumption of the tax agency's future move.