Mahathir’s lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla said the approach taken by the government will be that Mahathir did not cross the threshold to obtain a leave from the High Court to initiate the judicial review in asking a order to direct the prime minister to advise the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to revoke Raus’ appointment.
Senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, representing the government, confirmed the details.
The hearing has been fixed for Oct 24 before Justice Kamaludin Md Said.
The court also ordered lawyers for Mahathir and the government to file written submissions.
Last Wednesday, Mahathir filed a leave of application for a judicial review at the High Court here to compel Prime Miniser Najib Razak to advise the king to revoke Raus’ appointment as additional judge and chief justice.
Mahathir has named Najib, the government and Raus as respondents.
In his application, Mahathir said Raus should be barred from performing his judicial and administrative functions.
He said Article 125 of the Federal Constitution did not allow the appointment of a chief justice beyond the retirement age of 66 years plus six months of extension and Article 122 (1A) did not allow a chief justice to advise the king to appoint a candidate who had yet to retire from the judiciary to be made an additional judge at a later date.
Mahathir also wants a declaration that the four top judicial administrators – the chief justice, Court of Appeal president, chief judge of Malaya and chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak – should not come from the ranks of additional judges.
Justice Raus had received his instrument of office and taken his oath of office as chief justice before the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong on August 4, despite calls by the legal fraternity to reconsider the appointments.
The government announced on July 7 that Raus’ tenure as chief justice is for three years from Aug 4 while Court of Appeal president Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin will remain in his current administrative post for two years from Sept 28, after also being appointed an additional judge.
Their extension tenure was met with objections by legal practitioners, former judges such as Gopal Sri Ram, Abdul Hamid Mohamad and the Malaysian Bar, who said the move to extend the tenures of Raus and Zulkefli was unconstitutional.
However, former chief justice Zaki Azmi and Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali argued that the appointments were valid, and were done according to the law.