SENIOR lawyer Datuk Roger Chin has welcomed the Federal Court decision to dismiss the Attorney General’s application to appeal against granting leave to Sabah Law Society (SLS) to pursue the judicial review of Sabah’s 40% constitutional entitlement.
He noted the upcoming critical review at the High Court will pose a challenge to the 2022 Federal Government Review Order on the special grants.
“The entitlement, rooted in Article 112C, has long been overdue,” he said in a statement in Kota Kinabalu, today.
Chin said the SLS contends that both the Federal and Sabah state governments failed to conduct the mandatory second review under Article 112D by 1974, delaying it by a staggering 48 years.
This delay, SLS argues, has resulted in substantial financial losses for Sabahans, who were deprived of rightful payments during these “lost years,” he added.
Chin who is SLS former president said the AG’s appeal relied on four key legal questions, focusing on whether SLS’s application fell under the Federal Court’s exclusive jurisdiction, if SLS had the standing to bring the review, and whether the matter was even justiciable.
Despite these arguments, the court, led by Tan Sri Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Zabariah Binti Mohd Yusof, and Datuk Rhodzariah Binti Bujang, decisively upheld the previous rulings of the High Court and Court of Appeal, allowing SLS to proceed.
Representing the AG were Senior Federal Counsels Shamsul bin Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir bin Hambaly @ Arwi, along with Federal Counsels Kogilambigai a/p Muthusamy and Liyana binti Muhammad Fuad. David Fung Yin Kee, Jeyan Marimuttu, and Janice Junie Lim appeared for SLS.
The court noted that there is no prima facie case to establish exclusive jurisdiction under Article 128(1)(b), and as SLS possesses threshold standing and therefore, there was no need to grant leave for this appeal,” he said.
“With this resounding win, the judicial review will now proceed to its next phase, where the merits of the case will be evaluated by the High Court in Kota Kinabalu.
“A case management session has been scheduled for 30 October 2024, where directions for the next steps will be issued,” he said. - October 17, 2024
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