Federal AG to challenge Sabah special grant case leave order

The Kota Kinabalu High Court will hear an application to quash a 2022 gazette allowing the federal government to pay Sabah RM527.2 million pursuant to a special grant for years 2022 to 2026.

KOTA KINABALU: The federal attorney-general will ask the apex court to overturn an appeals court ruling allowing the Sabah Law Society (SLS) the right to challenge a 2022 gazette on special grant payments prescribed by the Federal Constitution.

Federal counsel Krishna Priya Venugopal informed Justice Ismail Brahim of this when the judicial review application came up for mention in the High Court here today.

The attorney-general, as guardian of public interest, has until July 17 to file an application for leave to appeal as there is no automatic right of appeal to the Federal Court.

To secure leave, an applicant must satisfy the apex court that the proposed appeal contains novel legal or constitutional questions of public importance which are being raised for the first time.

However, Ismail refused to stay the Court of Appeal ruling handed down on June 18 and has fixed the case for mention on July 25. He said he would proceed to hear the substantive appeal if the attorney-general fails to file the leave application.

Lawyers David Fung and Jeyam TM Marimuthu appeared for SLS.

Shamsul Bolhassan, deputy head of the civil court division in Putrajaya, confirmed with FMT Ismail’s stand on the matter.

Last month, a three-member Court of Appeal panel led by Justice P Ravinthran granted SLS leave, saying the court was not persuaded by the attorney-general’s contention that issues relating to the special grant are non-justiciable and that courts are precluded from hearing the case.

Also on the panel hearing the appeal were Justices Nazlan Ghazali and Choo Kah Sing.

Ravinthran said SLS, a statutory body set up to represent Sabah lawyers, was not seeking personal redress over the 40% special grant issue but was bringing the case in the form of public interest litigation for the benefit of all Sabahans.

The court noted that the focus of SLS’s judicial review centred on the federal government’s alleged “omission” to review Sabah’s entitlement under the special grant between 1974 and 2021.

“A review done in 2022 purportedly does not account for the so-called ‘lost years’,” Ravinthran said.

SLS is seeking to quash a 2022 gazette stating that the federal government will make grant payments to Sabah totalling RM527.2 million covering the years 2022 to 2026.

It also wants to compel the federal government to hold another review under Article 112D of the constitution to properly “reflect” Sabah’s 40% net revenue entitlement.

SLS argued that a review was carried out from 1969 to 1973, but not since then. As a result, it said, Sabahans had lost the benefit of the special grant for 47 years.

The federal government had contended that the value of the grant should be determined by both federal and state administrations, taking into account fiscal and financial positions.

On Nov 11, 2022 , Ismail granted SLS leave to pursue the judicial review on grounds that it had locus standi to file the application as this was a public interest case. His decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.