KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government remains a party in the Sabah Law Society's (SLS) judicial review over the state's 40 per cent special grant.
SLS immediate past president Datuk Roger Chin said in the recent Federal Court's hearing, the Sabah government was not named as a party to the leave application by the federal Attorney-General, and as such, the state was not required to appear before the Federal Court.
However, the state's position was already on record, as reflected in the Court of Appeal's grounds of decision.
"In paragraph 4 of the Court of Appeal's decision, it was noted that after the appeal hearing concluded, the Sabah Attorney-General (SAG) informed the Deputy Registrar that the appointment of the private practitioner representing the state had been revoked.
"The Sabah Attorney-General further confirmed in person the withdrawal of all arguments presented by the counsel and expressed satisfaction for the case to proceed to a substantive hearing, allowing the matter to be fully addressed on its merits.
"The state, therefore, endorsed the view that leave should be granted to the SLS, permitting the judicial review to be heard on its merits by the High Court. This position affirms that the state supported SLS's action in seeking leave for the judicial review to proceed,
"It is essential to clarify that during the Court of Appeal proceedings, the Sabah A-G withdrew only the submissions made on behalf of the State.
"Thus, it is evident that the state remains a party to the ongoing High Court proceedings," said Chin.
He was responding to statement made by Parti Warisan legal advisor Chin Teck Ming on the state government's support for the SLS judicial review.
Teck Ming's remarks were based on the Oct 17 Federal Court decision dismissing the federal Attorney-General's bid to stop SLS from being granted leave to have its case heard at the Kota Kinabalu High Court.
Teck Ming claimed that paragraph 3 of the Broad Grounds provided by the Federal Court states that "the State Government of Sabah is no longer a party to these proceedings having withdrawn from the same, prior to the hearing before the Court of Appeal."
For the record, in June 2022, SLS filed a leave application for a judicial review and the High Court had on Nov 11, 2022, granted leave to SLS.
The federal government, via the A-G's Chambers, appealed the decision and obtained a stay on proceedings in the High Court.
On June 18, the Court of Appeal dismissed the A-G's appeal against the leave granted for the SLS's judicial review on the grounds that SLS had established the threshold for locus standi in the case.
The A-G then filed leave application against SLS at the Federal Court but was dismissed.
Case management has been scheduled for Oct 30, where directions for the next steps will be issued.