With today’s ruling, they are also entitled to an increased pension based on the current salary of senators.

The appellants are also entitled to a 2% annual increase to meet inflation.

Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan, who delivered the unanimous ruling of the three-member bench, said the law that the government had relied on was a subsidiary legislation and could not be applied retrospectively to take away the rights of the appellants.

“The appeal is thus allowed accordingly. We set aside the order of the court below and direct that each party bear their costs in this appeal,” said Azizul.

The bench was chaired by Justice Lee Swee Seng, with Justice Che Ruzima Ghazali being the other member.

The former senators led by Idris Buang had filed an originating summons for a declaration that they were entitled to a recomputation of the revised pension that came into effect from Jan 1, 2015.

They named the chief administrator of Parliament and the government as respondents in the suit filed on Aug 15, 2019.

Their application was originally dismissed by the High Court in 2020.

Krishna Dallumah, Indran Kumaraguru, Shankar Ram Asnani and Nasuha Badrul Din appeared for the appellants while senior federal counsel Rahazlan Affandi Abdul Rahim, Liew Horng Bin and Nurul Muhaimin Azman represented the respondents.

Krishna had submitted that a retrospective implementation limiting to 2% the rise in annual pension payments to senators who had served before 2015 was unconstitutional.

The lawyer said the backdating exercise was not allowed under the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980.

He said the amendment, gazetted on March 4, 2015, took away his clients’ vested rights.

“It was done retrospectively to begin from Jan 1, 2014,” he had submitted.

Krishna said as a result of the amendment, senators and MPs who served before 2015 received a 2% pension hike based on their RM4,112.79 monthly salary.

However, their post-2015 counterparts enjoyed a similar pension hike based on the revised salary of RM11,000 which was implemented on Jan 1, 2015.

“This is enormous, as the rise was 167%,” he said, adding that his clients were not treated equally, in violation of Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.

He said his clients were constitutionally entitled to enjoy a hike in pension based on the revised RM11,000 monthly salary.

Liew submitted that the provisions in the amended Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 2015 were clear that the revised allowances and pensions were only applicable to senators still serving as of Jan 1, 2015, and did not apply to those who had retired before that date.

He said the amendment had not altered the appellant’s rights as pensioners but rather conferred an increment of 2% annually to their pensions.

As such, he said, the appellants were not prejudiced, and the amendment did not infringe the provisions of the constitution.