A three-man bench chaired by Idrus Harun said the restraining order sought by the state government was to stifle the EC’s redelineation process under the Federal Constitution.
“It is the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) that is entrusted under the constitution to receive and decide the proposals relating to the redelineation,” he said of the unanimous ruling.
Sitting with Idrus were Kamardin Hashim and Yaacob Md Sam.
Idrus also said case laws had shown that courts were not inclined to grant a stay against the EC from performing its constitutional function.
“As such, we decline to use our discretion to grant the restraining order. The application is, therefore, dismissed,” he said.
The Selangor government had on Feb 19 filed the application to stop the EC from presenting its local inquiries report to the prime minister, to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, pending the disposal of its appeal.
The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the appeal on March 23.
Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali had also filed an affidavit in support of obtaining the stay order.
On Dec 7, High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan had dismissed Selangor’s judicial review application to challenge the EC’s exercise in redrawing electoral boundaries, largely due to a binding Court of Appeal ruling.
Azizul dismissed all four grounds given by the state.
The grounds were that there was alleged malapportionment and gerrymandering in most constituencies, the names of about 136,000 voters were missing, the EC had failed to use the latest electoral roll to conduct its exercise, and there was a lack of information in the notice before the boundary redrawing exercise was carried out.
Lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar, appearing for the Selangor government, today submitted that the order should be granted as the EC failed to abide by the mandatory procedures prescribed in the constitution.
“Our appeal will be academic should the EC be allowed to submit the report to the prime minister,” he said.
Gurdial said the court had the power to check on a constitutional violation, more so when it involved the democratic process of choosing a government at the federal and state levels.
He said the EC had until Sept 14 this year to complete its exercise and the elections could be conducted based on the present boundaries.
Up to Dewan Rakyat to accept or reject proposals
Meanwhile, government lawyer Amarjeet Singh submitted that the second inquiry in Selangor was about to be completed as a result of an earlier stay obtained by the state last year pending the outcome of the High Court judicial review hearing.
He said EC’s reports for all other states in Peninsular Malaysia had been completed.
Amarjeet said the EC’s proposals were advisory in nature and not binding on any party.
“It is only for the Dewan Rakyat to accept or reject the proposals. The state government is attempting to prevent the EC’s recommendations to be given to the prime minister,” he said.
Amarjeet said the application should be dismissed as there was no prospect of the appeal being successful.
He said two challenges against the EC by voters in Perak and Melaka had also been dismissed by the Federal Court.
The next sitting of the Dewan Rakyat starts on Monday and it is possible for the EC’s proposal to be tabled from March 26 after the debate on the Royal address is completed.
Earlier, the bench also dismissed a move to recuse Idrus and Kamardin from hearing the application as they were on other panels that heard similar cases involving the EC.
Selangor govt seeks order to stop EC presenting report to PM