Court sets Aug 17 to determine justiciability of Sabah assembly dissolution

Judicial Commissioner Leonard David Shim set the date after hearing an application for leave for judicial review of the decision to dissolve the state assembly.

The matter was brought before the court by Tengku Fuad Ahmad, counsel for former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman and 32 other assemblymen who are seeking the leave for the judicial review.

Tengku Fuad said afterwards that the court has also set Aug 10 for a written submission from Sabah Attorney-General Brenndon Keith Soh and Aug 12 for his (Tengku Fuad’s) side to file a reply submission.

He said the application for leave for the judicial review was to determine whether Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin, as the first respondent, had acted lawfully in dissolving the state assembly on the advice of Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, the second respondent.

"We will reconvene here on Aug 17 for additional argument or for ruling," Tengku Fuad told reporters at the court complex here.

The application had also named the Election Commission and the Sabah State Government as the third and fourth respondents, respectively.

Tengku Fuad explained that the argument put forward before Shim is that Tun Juhar was not advised properly by Mohd Shafie to exercise the power to dissolve the state assembly under the state constitution.

On July 30, Mohd Shafie announced he had Tun Juhar’s consent for the dissolution of the assembly with immediate effect to pave the way for a state election within 60 days.

The chief minister had sought the consent for the dissolution of the assembly after Musa announced at a press conference that he had 33 assemblymen on his side to form a new state government.

The dissolved state assembly had 65 representatives.