Anti-hopping law: Penang High Court fixes Sept 14 to hear amendments

Judicial Commissioner (JC) Azizan Md Arshad set the date after lawyer Chetan Jethwani, who represented the assemblymen, requested for some time to file the amendments to their originating summons (OS) following the Federal Court ruling on Aug 3 that Article 14A of the Penang State Constitution enacted in 2012 was constitutional.

Chetan said that the assemblymen wanted to submit amendments to the OS in light of the Federal Court's decision declaring Article 14A(1) of the State Constitution as lawful and consistent with Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution.

"We need time to submit the amendments and we want to ask for our application to amend the OS to be heard as we want to explain why we seek these amendments," he told the High Court here today.

Surendra Ananth, who represented the defendants, told the court that the application to amend the OS was a tactical manoeuvre to delay the case and wanted the plaintiff to file a new OS instead of amending it.

However, Azizan who was initially reluctant to allow the plaintiffs to submit the amendment, eventually granted Chetan two weeks to submit the application in which the arguments would be heard followed by the OS.

"I will give two weeks for both parties to argue on both the amendments and whether to ask to strike out the OS," he said.

In 2020, the four assemblymen - Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam) and Zolkifly Md Lazim (Telok Bahang) - had filed three OS against the Penang State Assembly and State Assembly Speaker to challenge the constitutionality of Article 14A(1) of the Penang State Constitution, and to stop the four seats concerned from being declared vacant, pursuant to Article 14A(1).

Article 14A of the state constitution stipulates that a state assemblyman should vacate his seat if he resigns, is stripped of his membership, ceases to be a politician, or is chosen as a candidate by another political party.

On April 12 this year, Azizan allowed an application by the Penang State Legislative Assembly (PSLA) and its speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang to refer questions to the Federal Court to hear and decide on the constitutionality of the state's anti-hopping enactment.

The PSLA and its speaker wanted the Federal Court to decide on the question of whether Article 14A of the Penang State Constitution was void as it is inconsistent with Article 10 (1) (c) of the Federal Constitution.

The Federal Court, on Aug 3, ruled that Article 14A of the Penang State Constitution is valid and consistent with Article 10(1) (c) of the Federal Constitution.