Justice Amarjeet Singh dismissed the leave applications by Satarriah Abdul Karim, Zaidi Abdul Majid and P Vellasamy on grounds that the courts cannot inquire into matters involving political parties, as stated in Section 18C of the Societies Act.

The court made no order to costs.

Satarriah, Zaidi and Vellasamy claimed that Saifuddin’s decision contravened Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution on equality, adding that it had denied other members the chance of challenging the incumbents for the post of president and deputy president.

“The applicants were denied their rights to be heard by the minister before coming to his decision. Until today, there is no reasonable explanation from the minister for his decision,” they claimed in their applications.

At the 2022 Umno annual general assembly on Jan 14 this year, the party approved a motion for the post of president and deputy president not to be contested at the party elections.

The trio pointed out that the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had launched a probe into the possible violation of Umno’s constitution over the no-contest motion for the top two posts.

They had wanted the court to quash Saifuddin’s decision exempting the posts from being contested. They also named Umno and the RoS as defendants in their suit.

Lawyer Thalia Rohaina Abdul Latiff represented the BN members, while senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly appeared for Saifuddin and the RoS.

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