May 22, 10 2:59pm
The Perak constitutional saga is far from over, with ousted Perak speaker V Sivakumar filing a Notice of Motion at the Federal Court to annul its earlier ruling that allowed the three BN-friendly assemblypersons to retain their seats.On April 9, 2009 the Federal Court ruled that the speaker did not have the right to declare the state seats vacant, stating that the Election Commission was the rightful body.The verdict in effect allowed the BN to continue running Perak after its controversial takeover from the Pakatan Rakyat.
Sivakumar filed a Notice of Motion on April 19 , claiming the apex court decision was made without jurisdiction, and as a consequence, it be declared null and void and having no effect.Through this, the review application seeks to set-aside the April 9, 2009 order.The apex court has fixed Monday May 24 to hear Sivakumar's application. 'Federal Court wrongly assumed jurisdiction' In his accompanying affidavit, Sivakumar (left) supported the motion by claiming that the Federal Court had wrongly assumed jurisdiction to hear the assemblypersons' application based on its interpretation that the constitution of Perak is federal law, capable of conferring jurisdiction upon the apex court by virtue of Article 121(2)(c) of the Federal Constitution. The crux of Sivakumar's argument is that the Perak constitution, with its Article 63, is by definition not federal law.Hence, he argues that since the apex court had misinterpreted the Federal Constitution, it had therefore unconstitutionally assumed jurisdiction to hear the application directly from the Ipoh High Court.Therefore, it follows that whatever findings or verdict handed on April 9, 2009 are illegal.
If Sivakumar's motion is allowed, it will throw the status of the three assemblypersons into question.
Higher-ups plotted Perak takeover .The three assemblypersons in question are Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang), Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), who quit their respective parties to back the BN in the shock takeover of the Perak government in February last year.
Osman and Jamaluddin were former Perak PKR members and Hee the DAP.The move was engineered by Najib Abdul Razak, who was then deputy prime minister and Perak Umno liason chief, resulting in the fall of the Pakatan government and the rise of BN menteri besar Zambry Abdul Kadir (right).
The case came about after Sivakumar declared that the state seats were vacant with the trio's resignation.
Countering this, the three assemblypersons applied at the Ipoh High Court to refer directly to the federal court for a decision on whether it is the speaker or the EC which has the final say in determining a state seat vacant, or that their resignation letters purportedly tendered by them were valid.
This prompted the former speaker and Tromoh assemblyperson, along with three former Pakatan excos and three members of the public (from the defectors' constituencies), to file an application to the Kuala Lumpur High Court challenging the defectors' right to continue occupying their state seats, and instead calling for fresh elections.The date of hearing will be fixed when the matter is mentioned on May 27, 2010.
The April 9 verdict was delivered by a panel of five judges: Court of Appeal president Alauddin Mohd Sherif leading Chief Judge of Malaya Arifin Zakaria, Justice James Foong, the late Justice Augustine Paul and Justice Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman, the last of whom has since retired.The hearing on Monday will be before a fresh panel of judges at the apex court.
Source form : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/132465
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