“There is no decision on grounds that the matter is academic. We are left guessing whether the appointments are constitutional or not,” Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla told reporters today.
The lawyer was in court as Mahathir had been allowed to hold a watching brief to observe the proceedings.
He said Mahathir’s appeal to challenge the appointments of former chief justice Raus Sharif and Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin as additional judges was fixed on Oct 9.
“I will meet my client to take instruction in view of today’s Federal Court ruling,” he added.
Zainun Ali, who delivered the unanimous judgment of a six-member bench, said there was no dispute since Raus and Zulkefli were no longer in office and their replacements had been made.
Justice Richard Malanjum was appointed as chief justice on July 11 while Ahmad Maarop was made Court of Appeal president.
Mahathir filed two judicial reviews in August and September last year, seeking to compel former prime minister Najib Razak to advise the king to revoke the appointments of Raus and Zulkefli as additional judges as well as chief justice and Court of Appeal president.
On Nov 6, however, the High Court dismissed Mahathir’s leave for judicial review application on grounds that it was frivolous, saying he had no arguable case to obtain a mandamus order to revoke the judges’ appointments.
Haniff said today’s decision would not have been academic if the bench had delivered its judgment soon after hearing submissions from the relevant parties on March 14.
“It’s high time the apex court has a schedule to pronounce its judgments within a time period like lower courts do,” he added.
Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, meanwhile, said Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim should not have recused herself from the bench on grounds of bias.
“She was only elevated after Raus and Zulkefli resigned. So the perceived bias was misplaced,” said Shafee, who appeared for the Muslim Lawyers’ Association which was allowed to intervene in the proceedings.
He added that the bench should have delivered a ruling one way or the other as the matter was of national interest.