A LAWYER failed in his bid to initiate judicial review proceedings against the MCMC over restrictions placed on a Facebook post he published last year after the Penang High Court dismissed his leave application.
Shamsher Singh Thind wanted to quash an administrative request that resulted in users of the social media site in Malaysia being blocked from accessing his May 2024 posting.
The court ruled that the decision to remove Shamsher's post was made by Facebook and not the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, hence it could not be subjected to a judicial review.
In his decision delivered via Zoom, Justice Anand Ponnudurai said MCMC's action was not a "decision" that the court could review.
In his application to the court, Shamsher claimed that the MCMC had violated his freedom of speech by blocking the post.
He wanted the court to declare the regulator’s actions illegal and for MCMC to drop its “directive” to Facebook calling for the post to be blocked.
"Any recourse, if at all, is against Facebook, and possibly MCMC, in the civil courts," Anand said.
In his post, Shamsher had sought to link the award of a government contract to the husband of a Cabinet minister.
The post sparked intense debate online, prompting MCMC to request that Facebook restrict its visibility.
Shamsher’s lawyer, A Srimurugan, said his client wanted the court to declare that MCMC had no legal power to issue its “directive”.
Srimurugan, who appeared with J. Gunamalar, said that although MCMC's action was referred to as an administrative request, it took the form of a directive.
In written submissions, the Attorney General had asked for the application to be dismissed, saying the MCMC's administrative request was "neither susceptible nor amenable to a judicial review application". - January 23, 2025
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