The former law minister, who filed the review to remedy an injustice, said the three-man bench of the Federal Court had used the wrong test to dismiss his application to disqualify Raus.
He said there was a real danger of bias as Raus had also a close relationship with the prime minister, and that the AG had declined to prosecute Najib Razak for alleged criminal offences.
Zaid said although the application for leave to apply for judicial review was directed against the office of the AG, the real target of the application was Najib.
He said the prime minister was a suspect in the criminal investigations relating to the receipt of a large sum of money by him in his personal account with AmIslamic Bank.
Zaid said Najib was a litigant in several pending civil cases.
“It was the suspect (Najib) who recommended the appointment of the chief justice to his position. Besides this, there is a strong personal relationship between the chief justice and the suspect.
“This is evidenced by the fact that the chief justice attended the religious ceremony held by the suspect on the suspect’s birthday. No other members of the Federal Court were present at that function,” he said in his affidavit in support of the application.
A copy of the photograph showing Raus’ attendance is attached in the affidavit.
Yesterday, former Umno leader Khairudin Abu Hassan had filed a similar application.
In naming the AG as respondent to the application, under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995, Zaid said he wanted the July 28 decision to refuse him leave to appeal to be set aside.
Zaid also wants a fresh bench to be constituted to rehear the leave application.
Raus, who sat with Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Maarop and justice Azahar Mohamed, unanimously dismissed Zaid, Khairuddin and the Malaysian Bar’s applications.
Zaid said before the commencement of the July 28 court proceeding, his lawyers conveyed their reason to a court registrar to disqualify Raus from leading the bench.
“However, the chief justice decided not to recuse himself because he would decide the case in accordance with the law and the facts,” he said.
In dismissing the leave applications, Raus had said it was a clear exercise of discretion and the AG’s power could not be questioned in court.
“It is not only a good law but a good policy,” he said of the unanimous ruling.
Raus said, otherwise each time the AG made a decision, he would be called up to give his reason in court.
“Then it will be the court and not the AG who will exercise his power under Article 145(3) ,” he said, adding that this could not have been the intention of the framers of the Federal Constitution.
That provision states the AG has the discretion to institute, conduct and discontinue any criminal proceeding.
The trio had challenged AG Mohamed Apandi Ali’s decision from March last year to close the case into allegations that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into Najib’s bank accounts.
The AG had on Jan 26 last year, directed the MACC to close investigations into the case.
Before the case had gone to the Federal Court, High Court judge Hanipah Farikullah, in three separate judgments, had said the courts were not the avenue for those unhappy with the decision of the AG not to prosecute any criminal case to seek redress.
“The avenue of the person being unhappy with his (AG) decision is elsewhere, not in the courts,” she said.
Hanipah said she was bound by a long line of Federal Court rulings why the decision of the AG not to institute criminal proceedings could not be reviewed by the courts.