PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal has fixed September 25 to give its verdict in the appeal by the home minister and the government to reinstate its order to ban the book Gay is Okay: A Christian Perspective.
Lawyer Michael Cheah Ern Tien representing publisher Chong Ton Sin and author Ngeo Boon Lin said that the decision would be delivered on that day in open court.
A case management of the appeal was conducted today before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Mariam Hasanah Othman who later fixed the decision date.
On May 18, the appellate court’s three-member bench comprising justices Datuk Azizah Nawawi, Datuk M. Gunalan, and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong deferred their decision after hearing submissions from parties in the appeal.
The home minister and the government filed the appeal to the Court of Appeal seeking to reinstate the ban which was lifted by the high court on February 22, 2022.
High court judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin had allowed Chong and Ngeo’s judicial review application to quash the prohibition order issued by the home minister.
On February 17, 2021, the duo filed the judicial review claiming that the ban was irrational and disproportionate as no untoward incidents were triggered by the book since its publication over seven years ago.
On December 18, 2020, the Home Ministry banned the book under Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
On May 18, senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Alwi representing the home minister and the government submitted before the court that the minister’s decision to ban the book was legal, rational, and in accordance with the law as he was satisfied that its contents were likely to be prejudicial to public order, morality, and public interest.
The court also heard a submission on the same day from lawyer Edmund Bon Tai Soon, who is also representing the duo. He argued that the high court judge was correct in her reasoning that the home minister failed to justify the ban on the book. – Bernama, May 25, 2023
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