A three-man bench, chaired by Justice Idrus Harun, said there was merit in the EC’s appeal and that the filing of the leave application for judicial leave by the voters was done prematurely.
“We are setting aside the decision of the High Court,” Idrus said in the unanimous ruling.
He said the bench would leave it to the voters on their next course of action.
On Jan 8, the voters were granted leave by Justice Azizah Nawawi to question the EC’s decision on the grounds that there were special circumstances.
Azizah had also granted a stay against the EC putting the names of the army voters and their family members in the Segamat electoral roll pending disposal of the case.
The EC objected to the voters’ bid to obtain leave for the judicial review on the grounds that the voters should have exhausted all efforts under Regulation 20 of the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulation before coming to court.
Today, government lawyer Suzana Atan said Azizah made an error in law using her discretionary power to grant the leave application.
“Further, there were no exceptional circumstances to allow the merit of the case to be heard,” she said.
Lawyer Michelle Ng, who represented the voters, said the leave application was filed in December after a registrar of electors dismissed her clients’ complaint during an inquiry.
She said an appeal was made to the adjudicating officer to reverse the registrar’s decision but it was also turned down in early January.
The Segamat voters, led by Abdul Wahab Hassan, sought to quash the names of 949 army men and their spouses as new voters in a yet-to-be-completed army camp.
They applied for a court order that the exercise to include the army voters was unconstitutional as the army personnel and their families were not residing in the constituency.
In an affidavit in support of their application, the voters claimed the entry of names on the Segamat electoral roll was illegal as it ran foul of Article 119 of the Federal Constitution.
They said many irregularities were discovered during a public inquiry when the EC conducted an open hearing between Dec 4 and Dec 10 last year. The registrar, however, dismissed their complaints after the inquiry.
The DAP had previously questioned the move to transfer the army men and whether this was done to “save” the parliamentary seat from falling into the opposition’s hands in GE14.
In the 2013 general election, MIC president Dr S Subramaniam won the Segamat seat after defeating PKR’s Dr Chua Jui Meng with a 1,217-vote majority.
Meanwhile, lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo told reporters he would seek instruction from the voters whether to appeal today’s decision in the Federal Court or file a fresh leave for judicial review.
“Since the court today held that our earlier application is premature, as we did not wait for the outcome from the adjudicating officer, we have the liberty to file a new application,” he said.
EC challenges bid to remove ‘army camp voters’ through courts