KUALA LUMPUR – A group of voters in the Gombak parliamentary constituency have failed in their bid to obtain leave from the Federal Court to proceed with an appeal to reinstate their civil action against Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali over alleged breach of fiduciary duties.
A three-man bench, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, unanimously dismissed the application for leave by the 10-member group of voters.
Azmin, who is presently with Bersatu, is currently the MP for Gombak. He is currently in his third term as MP for the constituency, having first won it in 2008 as a PKR member.
He is also the international trade and industry minister.
According to a report by Free Malaysia Today, the ruling was made after the bench found that the voters had failed to raise legal issues which were of public importance to justify permission to appeal the apex court’s decision.
Azahar was quoted as saying that the proposed questions asked in the attempt to seek leave to appeal did not fulfil Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
“We are not persuaded that the proposed questions fulfilled the threshold, and hence dismiss (the application). In view that this is a public interest case, we make no orders as to costs,” Azahar was quoted as saying during an online hearing this morning.
On April 13, Azmin had succeeded in his appeal to nullify a lawsuit filed by the group of constituents over alleged deceit and breach of fiduciary duty as their parliamentarian in view of his participation in the Sheraton Move that caused the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration to collapse in February 2020.
According to Malaysiakini, which cited a copy of the suit filed in late 2020, the 10 voters were seeking a total of nine court declarations, including how their elected representative owed them a fiduciary duty and had allegedly breached that duty.
The plaintiffs also claimed that Azmin had betrayed their trust by collaborating with Barisan Nasional in the Sheraton Move and brought about the fall of the PH government, despite campaigning and winning the Gombak seat under PKR and the PH coalition. – The Vibes, September 27, 2022
