The Federal Court has refused to give the government leave to appeal a decision by the Court of Appeal to reinstate Nazrul Imran Mohd Nor.
A three-member bench chaired by Rohana Yusuf said the government failed to meet the threshold under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act to persuade the apex court that the legal questions posed were novel and of public importance.
Others on the bench were Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Mary Lim.
Lawyer A Surendra Ananth, who appeared with Phoebe Loi, said Nazrul would get his arrears in salary and other perks entitled to him.
“He can also return to work,” he told FMT.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan represented the Public Services Commission (PSC) and the government which had filed three revised legal questions to obtain leave from the Federal Court.
Nazrul was an administrative and diplomatic (PTD) officer serving as the second secretary at the Malaysian embassy in Manila when the alleged offence took place.
He had been a PTD officer for eight years when he was told to return to Malaysia after he was found to have made an adverse comment about Najib on his Facebook page on Jan 11, 2017.
He allegedly said: “Kesian. Hilang kwn, hilang deposit.” ( which translates to “Pity. You lost a friend, and deposit.”)
The post on the ex-prime minister’s Facebook page was in response to Najib expressing his condolences to the family of then Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem following the latter’s sudden demise.
Dissatisfied with his reply to a show-cause letter, the PSC sacked Nazrul on Feb 13, 2017, for violating Regulations 19(1)(b) and 4(2)(d) and (g) of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993.
He then filed a judicial review against the PSC and the government at the Kuala Lumpur High Court but it was dismissed in May 2018 by Judge Azizah Mohd Nawawi.
However, a three-member Court of Appeal bench comprising Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, Abu Bakar Jais and Darryl Goon last November ordered the PSC to reinstate Nazrul to his former position.
In its judgment, the bench ruled the regulations had restricted Nazrul’s constitutional right and his dismissal from service was unreasonable, irrational and the punishment too harsh.