Lawyer Chetan Jethwani said the notice of appeal was filed on Nov 17.

The Court of Appeal has yet to fix an appeal hearing date.

In a written judgment made available on Nov 27, Justice Amarjeet Singh said he was bound by a decision of the Federal Court which ruled that the Speaker’s decision as to whether a casual vacancy exists is non-justiciable under Article 63(1) of the Federal Constitution.

That provision stipulates that the validity of proceedings in either House of Parliament or any of their respective committees shall not be questioned in any court.

“I cannot ignore a binding precedent and settled law,” he said.

Johari had said in January that there was no need to vacate the Papar, Batu Sapi, Ranau and Sipitang seats, held by Armizan Ali, Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan, Jonathan Yasin and Matbali Musah respectively.

The decision was communicated to the party in a letter dated Jan 16.

Bersatu claims that Johari’s decision not to vacate the seats of ex-MPs of the party was “tainted with illegality”.

The four MPs were elected on a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) ticket in the last general election (GE15) while Bersatu was part of GRS.

However, following GE15, GRS dropped Bersatu as a coalition member.

Bersatu vice-president Ronald Kiandee was previously reported as saying that the party had issued letters of termination to the four MPs on Dec 21, 2022.

He said this was because they had “crossed the floor” by sitting with the government bloc during the Dewan Rakyat sitting on Dec 19 last year.

Kiandee claimed this had triggered Article 49A of the Federal Constitution, which states that MPs will lose their seats if they move to another party except if they are sacked by the party or if it is dissolved or deregistered.

Bersatu had wanted the High Court to revoke Johari’s decision and order him to declare the four seats vacant.