Lawyer Bobby Chew, representing SIB and its president, Jerry W A Dusing@Jerry W Pate, when contacted, said the notice to withdraw the application was filed on March 22.
He said he had informed the court of this decision during the case management conducted through e-Review yesterday.
On March 17, Chew had said he received instructions from his clients to withdraw the leave to appeal application for discovery of documents in view of the High Court’s decision in allowing a judicial review brought by Sarawak native Christian, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill.
SIB had, in November last year, filed a motion in the Federal Court to obtain leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the church’s appeal on the discovery of the documents on Oct 12 last year.
On Oct 16, 2017, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur had dismissed the church’s application for the documents, ruling that they were classified under the Official Secrets Act.
The documents were requested by the church and Dusing in a judicial review application filed on Dec 10, 2007, against the home ministry and the government over their right to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in their religious publications.
SIB and Dusing filed the judicial review after the Malay-language Christian religious books containing the word “Allah”, which were brought in from Surabaya, Indonesia, were seized by the Customs Department at the low-cost carrier terminal in Sepang in August 2007.
On Oct 1, 2014, the Court of Appeal gave the nod to the church to commence a judicial review over the right to use the word “Allah” in all its religious publications and materials after the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 5, 2014, dismissed SIB’s leave application to initiate a judicial review.
They are seeking a declaration that they have a constitutional right to use the word “Allah” in their Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia-translated Christian bibles and in all their religious publications and materials.
The church’s judicial review in the High Court is set for case management on April 19.