The High Court will decide on April 14 whether to set aside a decision by the Malaysian Arbitral Tribunal Establishment (MATE) which declared that sacked PPP leader Senator T. Murugiah was the rightful party president.
High Court Justice Datuk Aziah Ali, who set the date in chambers today, also fixed April 23 to decide on an application by Murugiah who is seeking the enforcement of the MATE ruling.
The PPP filed the application last Dec 28, four days after the Registrar of Societies (RoS) filed to set aside MATE’s ruling.
The RoS is seeking a declaration that its statutory responsibilities and powers under the Societies Act 1966 could not be subjected to any arbitral action and to set aside MATE’s ruling, made on Dec 11 last year.
It is also seeking to establish that Murugiah’s referral of the matter to MATE was an abuse of the law process, invalid and illegal.
In its application, the RoS named Murugiah, MATE, its president Datuk Munsyi Muslim Yacob and arbitrator Datuk Prof Madya Abdul Halim Sidek as respondents.
According to counsel for the RoS, should the High Court allow its application on April 14, the decision over Murugiah’s application would merely be academic.
“We cannot allow for decisions made by RoS to be revoked through arbitration, then all other decisions we make can also be revoked in a similar way,” said senior federal counsel Datin Azizah Nawawi this morning.
Azizah, along senior federal counsel Nadia Hanim Mohd Tajuddin and L. Chandra Dewi, appeared for the RoS while A. Vishnu Kumar and Sreekant Pillai appeared for Murugiah.
Meanwhile, PPP president Datuk M. Kayveas has also applied to be interveners in the application by Murugiah to enforce MATE’s decision on the grounds that he had a vested interest in the matter.
Lawyer Naran Singh said the application was made last Friday to the court.
“The PPP has to come in as interveners on this matter because if MATE’s decision is not set aside then the party and Kayveas’ position would be affected,” he said. Other lawyers on the team are James Monteiro and John Skelchy.
The RoS had in August last year ruled that the extraordinary general meeting in which Murugiah was elected party president was invalid.
Murugiah, who had initially filed a suit seeking an order of certiorari to quash that decision, withdrew the suit upon receiving MATE’s decision.
The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, who has been at loggerheads with Kayveas since last year, was sacked from the party in May last year for allegedly using his government office to hold a press conference and defaming the party, its supreme council and leadership.
After his sacking, Murugiah is also now facing the possibility of being removed as a deputy minister.
news courtesy of Malaysian Insider
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