This follows the Federal Court’s decision to dismiss Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz’s leave application to have the merits of his complaint heard.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led a three-member bench, said Khairul’s leave application failed as the Pardons Board in 2018 was properly constituted.

She said the leave questions that he posed related only to facts and not the law.

“The applicant did not meet the threshold to obtain leave under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act,” said Tengku Maimun, who sat with Justices Nallini Pathmanathan and Vernon Ong.

Tengku Maimun said the judges concurred with a finding of fact made by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal that the Pardons Board had been properly constituted.

“There was also no misrepresentation made when advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” she said.

She said the apex court found no reason to depart from existing legal precedent on the issue of non-justiciability, which stipulates that the exercise of the King’s discretion when granting pardons was not a matter capable of being challenged in a court of law.

Tengku Maimun said the bench did not find anything in any of the pardon documents to suggest that the powers of the court had been usurped.

“The matter has also been rendered academic,” she said.

Lawyers J Leela and Yasmeen Soh represented Anwar.

Khairul was represented by Haniff Khatri Abdullah, Raza Hassan and Azureen Ibrahim.

On Sept 21, 2021, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal brought by Anwar, who was then Port Dickson MP, and the Pardons Board of Kuala Lumpur to strike out the suit filed against them by Khairul.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Has Zanah Mehat allowed the appeal, holding that Khairul did not have the right to question the King’s exercise of clemency and the advice he had received when pardoning Anwar.

Has Zanah said Khairul’s suit was “obviously unsustainable” as it did not disclose a proper cause of action.

She said the bench agreed with counsel for Anwar and the board that the power of pardon was non-justiciable and Khairul had no legal standing to file the action.

On Sept 21, 2020, Anwar and the Pardons Board lost their bid in the High Court to strike out the lawsuit.

In his originating summons filed on Feb 26, 2020, Khairul claimed that several unconstitutional actions had been taken to ensure that Anwar received a pardon which released him from prison following the 14th general election on May 9, 2018.

He claimed that the pardon granted to Anwar by the King contravened Articles 42(4) and (5) of the Federal Constitution as it was not based on the advice of the board, which Khairul claimed had not been lawfully constituted following the general election and the formation of the new government.

Anwar had been sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan. His conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.

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