Lawyer Rajpal Singh Ghai said the court fixed the date after lawyers for the Bar, Najib and the attorney-general consented to a common date for the hearing to be held.
“The parties are to file their written submissions by July 16 and also provide an executive summary of their cases,” said Rajpal, whose firm Amir & Rajpal Ghai is the solicitor for the Bar.
In November last year, then High Court judge Ahmad Kamal Shahid dismissed the Bar’s leave application for judicial review, ruling that the subject matter of the Bar’s proposed judicial review application was non-justiciable.
“I am of the view that the decision of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the advice of the FTPB are all part and parcel of one process that culminated in the pardon by the king.
“Consequently, it is not a matter that is suitable and appropriate to be reviewed by this court,” he said.
The judge ruled that the prerogative of mercy, pursuant to Article 42 of the Federal Constitution, involved a direct exercise of the king’s personal discretion.
It was not a power held or delegated to the FTPB, said Kamal, who is now a Court of Appeal judge.
“I am of the view that the applicant’s (Bar) attempt to differentiate between challenging the advice of the FTPB and the actual decision of the king is flawed. It is non-challengeable.”
In its memorandum of appeal filed in the Court of Appeal in January, the Bar said Kamal erred in knocking out its leave application solely on grounds that it was not justiciable.
The Bar filed its application in the High Court on April 26, 2023, naming the FTPB and Najib as respondents.
It sought declarations that the FTPB’s Jan 29 decision in halving Najib’s prison sentence to six years and reducing his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million was illegal, unconstitutional and invalid.
Najib has been serving his sentence in Kajang prison since Aug 23, 2022, after he was convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International.
He filed a petition for a royal pardon on Sept 2, 2022, resulting in the board reducing his prison sentence and fine.