A three-member panel led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat allowed the government’s application to be given leave to pursue its appeal, with parties at liberty to reformulate any additional questions of law.
The other two judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Mary Lim and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
Earlier, senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin, representing the government and PSD, asked the court to grant leave to appeal on three legal questions.
He said the questions had passed Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 as they were of public importance and to the public’s advantage.
Liew told the court that the Court of Appeal’s decision had affected more than 800,000 pensioners and the issue deserved final determination by the Federal Court.
Among the questions is whether Sections 3 and 6 of the Pensions Adjustment Act 1980, as amended by Sections 3 and 7 of the Pensions Adjustment (Amendment) Act 2013, contravene Article 147 of the Federal Constitution, when a pensioner fails to prove that the adjusted pension received is actually financially less favourable when compared to the former law.
Another question is whether Section 3 of the Pensions Adjustment Act 1980, as amended by Section 3 of the Pensions Adjustment (Amendment) Act 2013, which enables or empowers the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to prescribe an appropriate higher percentage of increment to be applied to an officer appointed before the amendment came into effect should a less favourable situation arise, is in itself in contravention of Article 147 of the Federal Constitution.
Chow Siew Wai, representing pensioner Aminah Ahmad, informed the court that he was not objecting to the government’s application for leave to pursue its appeal at the Federal Court, adding that the matter was of public interest and ought to be decided by the Federal Court.
On Jan 13, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Aminah and granted a declaration that the amendments to Sections 3 and 7 of the Pensions Adjustment (Amendment) Act 2013, which came into effect from January 2013, were null and void as they contravened Article 147 of the Federal Constitution.
The appellate court held that with the declarations, the situation prevailing before the amendment to Section 3 of the Pensions Adjustment Act 1980 would be revived and continue to apply.
Aminah, who retired as a civil servant with the foreign ministry, sued in her personal capacity and on behalf of 56 retired members of the public service, claiming that the amendments to the Pensions Adjustment Act resulted in a situation “less favourable” to her compared with the preceding retirement adjustment scheme under the Pensions Adjustment Act 1980.
Under the old scheme, a retiree’s pension is revised based on the prevailing salary of incumbent civil servants in that grade. However, the 2013 amendment was introduced based on a flat rate of 2% annual increment.