Justice Amarjeet Singh did not provide reasons for his ruling in proceedings which took less than five minutes.
“I will give my grounds of judgment in due course,” he said when asked by lawyer Zainur Zakaria why the judicial review application was dismissed.
Lawyer Rafique Rashid Ali, appearing with Zainur, said he had instructions from Mahathir to file an appeal.
Amarjeet had, on June 12, granted Mahathir leave to commence judicial review proceedings to assert his right to legal representation throughout the RCI proceedings.
During the inter-partes hearing which took place last year, Zainur submitted that the inquiry had violated Section 18 of the RCI Act 1950.
Section 18 provides that any person whose conduct is the subject of enquiry under the act, or who is in any way implicated or concerned in the matter under enquiry, shall be entitled to representation by an advocate at the whole of the enquiry.
Zainur said Mahathir should have been allowed to be present and represented by lawyers as he was the subject matter of the inquiry.
“Failure to comply with the provision makes the proceedings a nullity. As a consequence, the findings as contained in a report presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong are null and void,” he said.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan however submitted that Mahathir’s application was academic as the RCI’s report had already been submitted to the king.
The RCI’s report was declassified and released on the Parliament’s website on Dec 5, although several of its recommendations were redacted.
The report recommended that a police report be filed against Mahathir for cheating to enable a criminal investigation to take place.
“A criminal investigation can be initiated under Section 415(b) of the Penal Code (for cheating), punishable under Section 417, as well as under Section 418 of the same code,” it said.
Section 415(b) relates to the offence of intentionally deceiving a person to induce him to act or omit to act in a matter likely to cause damage or harm to another person.
The RCI was inquiring into Mahathir’s decision to withdraw an application to review a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), made in 2009, awarding sovereignty over Batu Puteh to Singapore.
In the same decision, the ICJ awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia, while the ownership of South Ledge, situated about 4km from Batu Puteh, was left for determination based on the delimitation of territorial waters.
The review, along with an application to interpret the ICJ’s judgment to address certain ambiguities and implications, particularly regarding the status of South Ledge, was filed by the government in 2017.
The RCI’s report found that Mahathir had likely acted deliberately to influence the Cabinet to discontinue both applications despite the views of international consultants who said they had a reasonable likelihood of success.
However, two members of the commission – retired apex court judge Zainun Ali and legal expert Faridah Jalil – said Mahathir’s decision not to proceed with the applications was a “mere dereliction of duty” and did not amount to a criminal offence.
Also on the RCI panel were lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu, former Universiti Malaya faculty of law dean Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin, Johor state financial officer Ridha Abd Kadir, and director of the marine department southern region Dickson Dollah. Ex-chief justice Raus Sharif is the commission chairman.