THE government has successfully overturned a High Court ruling that required pension adjustments for former civil servants based on a 2016 Public Service Department circular, after the Court of Appeal unanimously allowed its appeal in a case brought by pensioner Aminah Ahmad and 56 others.
The three-member appellate panel, chaired by Lim Chong Fong and sitting with Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid, set aside the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision that had allowed Aminah’s judicial review application.
The ruling means that, for the time being, the government is not required to pay pension arrears amounting to RM1.7 billion to 531,976 pensioners.
Delivering the court’s decision, Azhahari said the matter of pension adjustments had already been determined by a previous Court of Appeal panel in 2022.
He stated that the High Court had erred when it allowed Aminah’s 2024 judicial review application, describing it as res judicata, or a matter that had already been adjudicated, and therefore an abuse of the court process.
He said Aminah’s entitlement to her pension and the issue of arrears had been addressed earlier in a 2017 originating summons.
“The High Court judge had decided that the applicant's (Aminah) contention that the implementation of the two per cent annual rate of pension increment is less favourable compared to the adjustment of pension based on salary revision before the amendment made under the Act, was incorrect, hence the issue of loss was not proven.
“In our view, the issue of loss that was raised in the 2017 OS was meant to support her prayer for the payment of the arrears of her pension.
“However, having failed to convince the court in the 2017 OS on her loss, the applicant, in the JR application, sought to rely on the service circular and contended that there should be a pension adjustment as there were purportedly salary increments under the said circular.
“In our opinion, the service circular should be raised in the 2017 OS,” he said.
Azhahari added that the appellate panel considered the case appropriate for intervention.
“The appeal is allowed, and we set aside the decision of the High Court judge.
“Since this appeal is of wide public interest and concern, and for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that this decision affects the 57 respondents here only due to the way their applications were crafted and pursued in court,” he said.
The bench made no order as to costs.
Following the ruling, lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu, who represented Aminah, confirmed that his client would challenge the decision at the Federal Court.
He said he had received instructions to file an appeal at the country’s highest court.
The government and the Public Service Department were represented by senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi and federal counsel Muhammad Sallehuddin Md Ali. - March 9, 2026
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