Ex-Perak Speaker's application dismissed

The Federal Court has today struck out former Perak speaker V Sivakumar's notice of motion to set aside an earlier judgment made on April 9 last year.The ousted speaker (left) had argued that the earlier ruling by the Federal Court was made without jurisdiction and had sought to nullify its decision.The April 9 ruling denied Sivakumar the right to declare the state seats of three defected Pakatan Perak assemblypersons vacant and hence call for fresh elections.Today's panel of judges also affirmed the earlier decision that it was the Election Commission who had the sole right to declare seats vacant.During the proceedings, the panel allowed counsel Mohd Hafarizam Harun to raise a preliminary objection on behalf of his clients, the three defected assemblypersons.
Federal Court judge Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin (right) in his decision laid three grounds in allowing the preliminary objection.He said, firstly, that the respondent had failed to set out the provision in law where the application was made."Furthermore, the jurisdiction issue raised had been dealt with by the previous panel."The other panel had made a judicial finding in court, and hence this is an abuse of the court process," said Zulkefli.Zulkefli said the decision was unanimous.

Judges refused to recuse

Earlier on, three of the judges hearing the case - Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, Mohd Raus Sharif and Abdull Hamid Embong - had refused to recuse themselves.Sivakumar's lawyer had applied for the recusal on the grounds that it was necessary to avoid the perception of any element of bias or danger of bias.Zulkefli promptly dismissed the application.Chan Kok Keong argued that Mohd Raus had made a finding of fact at the Court of Appeal on May 22 last year, which had ruled that Zambry Abdul Kadir is the rightful Perak menteri besar.Zulkefli and Embong had been involved in a similar decision on Feb 9, 2010.
On April 9 last year, the Federal Court ruled that the speaker did not have the right to declare the state seats held by three BN-friendly assemblypersons vacant, stating that the Election Commission is the rightful body.
The verdict in effect allowed the BN to continue running Perak after its controversial takeover from the Pakatan Rakyat in February last year.Sivakumar filed a notice of motion on April 19, claiming the apex court's decision was made without jurisdiction and, as a consequence, should be declared null and void.

Source from : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/132570