Penang High Court fix March 3 to hear suit by four assemblymen against motion to vacate their seats

GEORGE TOWN, Feb 28 — The Penang High Court has fixed March 3, to hear amendments in the case relating to four state assemblymen who filed for an injunction against the Penang state assembly on a motion to vacate their seats.

Judicial Commissioner Azizan Arshad set the date after listening to submissions from lawyer Chetan Jethwani, who represented the assemblymen, and lawyer Surendra Anath who represented the Penang state assembly and Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang.

Earlier, Chetan had urged the court to allow the injunction to prevent the Penang state assembly from tabling the motion to vacate the seats until the appeal is heard.

in his submission, he requested for time to file the amendments to their originating summons (OS) following the Federal Court ruling on Aug 3 that Article 14A of the Penang state constitution enacted in 2012 was constitutional.

“If the court is not able to allow the injunction, I hope the court can stop the Penang State assembly speaker from informing the Election Commission after the motion to vacate the seats is tabled, debated and passed,” he said.

However, Surendra argued that the state assembly duties must be carried out and if there are parties who are not satisfied, only then can the case be taken to court.

“Therefore, the motion must be tabled, debated and voted before the decision is challenged in court and not otherwise,” he said.

On Jan 20, the High Court dismissed the lawsuits by four Penang assemblymen against the Penang State Legislative Assembly and State Assembly Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang over a motion introduced in October 2020 for them to vacate their seats.

However, the four assemblymen — Sungai Acheh assemblyman Zulkifli Ibrahim, Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam) and Zolkifly Md Lazim (Telok Bahang) — filed an appeal against the decision at the Appeals Court on Jan 25.

On Dec 16 last year, Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed the leave applications by the four assemblymen to challenge the competency of the state legislative assembly to pass an anti-hopping law.

The four assemblymen had filed the suit in 2020 to challenge the constitutionality of Article 14A(1) of the Penang State Constitution, and to stop their seats from being declared vacant, pursuant to Article 14A(1).

Article 14A of the Penang State Constitution states that a state assemblyman shall vacate his seat if having been elected as a candidate of a political party, he resigns or is expelled from a party or having been elected otherwise than as a candidate of a political party, he joins a political party. — Bernama