Sabah AGC replaces law firm in representing state in 40% revenue challenge
Published on: Friday, May 24, 2024
By: FMT
State-appointed legal counsel Tengku Fuad Ahmad appeared at the Kota Kinabalu High Court last week to intervene in the federal attorney-general’s appeal against a High Court decision to grant the SLS leave to challenge the special grant Sabah is entitled to.
PETALING JAYA: The Sabah Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has taken over from a law firm representing the state government in intervening in the 40% revenue legal challenge at the Court of Appeal.
State attorney-general Nor Asiah Yusof said the previously appointed Messrs FT Ahmad & Co were no longer acting for the Sabah government.
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This comes after state-appointed legal counsel Tengku Fuad Ahmad appeared at the Kota Kinabalu High Court last week to intervene in the federal attorney-general’s appeal against a High Court decision granting the Sabah Law Society (SLS) leave to challenge the special grant to which Sabah is entitled.
During the hearing, Tengku Fuad presented arguments which seemed to contradict the official stand of the state government regarding the 40% special grant under Articles 112C and 112D of the Federal Constitution.
“The state AGC has taken over the full conduct and care of the matter,” Nor Asiah said in a statement, adding that a case management was held today.
“I appeared for the Sabah government with Brenndon Keith Soh, the special legal advisor to the chief minister, as well as state counsels Devina Teo and Roland Alik.”
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Nor Asiah added that the Court of Appeal had fixed June 18 to deliver its decision on the federal attorney-general’s appeal against the High Court’s decision to grant leave to SLS.
The Sabah attorney-general also said the state government had retracted all submissions previously made by Tengku Fuad in the Court of Appeal regarding SLS’s lack of locus standi to bring the proceedings.
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“This was not advanced or submitted in the High Court by the state government. The state government also retracts the submission referring to Articles 112C and 112D of the Federal Constitution as ‘an aspiration’ and not a mandatory or absolute right of Sabah.
“As the state government did not appeal against the decision of the High Court on Nov 11, the state government accepts the outcome as granted, namely, that leave be granted for the matter to be ventilated on the merits at the substantive hearing of the judicial review application.”
Nor Asiah, who faced calls to resign after Tengku Fuad contradicted the state government’s stand, also gave assurance that the Sabah attorney-general was fully committed to upholding the state’s rights as outlined under the constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
SLS filed the judicial review application in 2022 to overturn the gazetting by the federal government of a RM125.6 million annual grant for Sabah, claiming that it violated the state’s revenue rights under MA63.
On Nov 11, 2022, the Kota Kinabalu High Court granted SLS’s application for leave, ruling that the society had locus standi to seek judicial review as the case was one of public interest.
The federal government appealed against the decision while the federal AGC obtained a stay order to stop the High Court from hearing the merits of the case pending the appeal.
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