KUALA LUMPUR – The owners of Crackhouse Comedy Club are suing Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) over a permanent ban on starting any business in the federal territory, Malaysiakini reports.
The two owners, Mohamad Rizal Johan Van Geyzel and Shankar R. Santhiram, also want to reinstate the club’s business licence which was revoked by DBKL following a video clip last July of a woman performer who allegedly insulted Islam at the venue.
The judicial review sighted by Malaysiakini was filed on November 27 and named DBKL, Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah, then federal territories deputy minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias, the then Federal Territories Ministry, and the government as respondents.
The Federal Territories Ministry has now been restructured as a department under the Prime Minister’s Department, in a restructuring announced by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali last month.
Rizal and Shankar, who are seeking exemplary and aggravated damages, said the move to revoke the club’s business licence and ban them from registering any business in Kuala Lumpur was an abuse of power and exercised arbitrarily.
They also said the decision was illegal, unreasonable, and unconstitutional, besides being unfair and disproportionate.
The video that sparked their woes was of a woman named Siti Nuramira Abdullah, who removed her clothes and allegedly insulted Islam in her stand-up comedy performance at the club.
The premises in Taman Tun Dr Ismail was then sealed and its operating licence subsequently revoked, with Rizal and Shankar blacklisted from registering any new business in Kuala Lumpur.
Rizal had also been investigated after video clips of his old performances were dug up and posted online.
Siti Nuramira and her boyfriend Alexander Navin Vijayachandran are facing different criminal charges in court over the video clip.
She has been charged with causing disharmony and feelings of ill-will on grounds of religion under the Penal Code, while he has been charged with improper use of network facilities under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1993 for recording Siti Nuramira’s performance and uploading it online. – The Vibes, January 5, 2023
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