Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo told High Court judge Azizah Nawawi today’s case could not go on as one of four coalition members, PPBM, had been issued with a provisional deregistration order by the RoS.
“We were informed that a letter was issued to the PPBM secretariat about 12.45pm,” said Gobind, the lead counsel for PH.
He said the RoS also held a press conference in Putrajaya about 2pm to announce the provisional deregistration of PPBM.
“All this was done when the RoS knew about PH’s challenge in court to compel them to register PH,” he said.
Gobind said this was a clear contempt of court as PPBM was a party to the on-going court action and the provisional deregistration had scuttled the legal proceeding.
Gobind, who is also PH legal bureau head, said he would produce the letter sent by RoS to PPBM and possibly file an affidavit to obtain leave from the court to haul up the RoS for showing disrespect to the court.
Government lawyer Suzana Atan said she had not seen the letter and sought a postponement to get further instruction.
Azizah then fixed April 11 for the case to be mentioned.
On March 1, Azizah allowed PH’s leave to challenge the RoS over the delay in registering the opposition coalition.
Outside the court, PH secretary Saifuddin Abdullah said the presidential council which met on Tuesday and this morning would honour all agreements and allocation of seats to PPBM.
“They will contest 52 parliamentary seats in the peninsula under the logo of a component party which will be made known at a gathering in Pasir Gudang in Johor tomorrow,” he said.
PH consists of PPBM, PKR, DAP and Amanah.
Saifuddin, who is a former deputy minister, alleged that what was happening was a “scheme by Umno and Barisan Nasional” to destablise the opposition in the run-up to the election.
“However, we never expected the RoS to act in a manner that would derail today’s court proceeding,” he said.
DAP national chairman Tan Kok Wai said what the RoS had done to PH amounted to “political persecution”.
“The more BN wants to break us up and finish us off , the more we will be united as one. I am confident we will triumph and unseat BN in the election,” said Tan who is also Cheras MP.