vFor Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim, the battle is not over as he makes a bid to overturn the High
zCourt's ruling on Badrul Hisham Abdullah.
For Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim, the battle is not over as he makes a bid to overturn the High Court's ruling on Badrul Hisham Abdullah.SHAH ALAM: The Selangor State Legislative Assembly will file an application to set aside the judgment allowing Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham Abdullah to keep his seat.
Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim said that the Shah Alam High Court’s decision was “unjust and highly unprecedented”.
He said that his counsel, Tommy Thomas, was unable to show up at today’s hearing as he was currently attending a three-day trial in Johor Baru.
Teng said that the separate trial, which ended today, was already fixed several months ago.
As a result, Teng said that on Feb 11, his counsel had applied for an adjournment of the Feb 17 hearing.
However, this application was rejected on Feb 14.
On Feb 16, Thomas’s assistant applied for a second adjournment before the court’s deputy registrar.
The deputy registrar acceded to the request, but would only move the hearing to Feb 18.
In a final move, the counsel’s assistant attempted to apply for adjournment of today’s hearing, but was rejected.
These rejections angered Teng, who accused the High Court of being unnecessarily harsh.
“I don’t see why the court should be so harsh. We are not asking for a long adjournment. My counsel is not available on the 17th or the 18th,” he told reporters at the Selangor State Secretariat.
Breach of natural justice
Teng said that the court’s tactics did not give him enough time to apply for a counsel of his choice.
“The court has to take judicial notice that this case involves the Speaker. It is not a case involving a Tom, Dick or Harry,” he said.
He said that it was a breach of natural justice when a defendant was not given an opportunity to be heard. ”Justice hurried is justice buried,” he said.
Quoting Article 72 of the Federal Constitution, Teng added that the declarations made by a Speaker of any House, whether it was state or federal, should have been free from court proceedings.
“What kind of judiciary do we have here?” he said.
Commenting on Badrul’s declaration of victory, Teng said: “As far as I am concerned, it is his own declaration. It is not binding. My declaration still stands.”
Teng had earlier declared the Port Klang seat vacant on Jan 20, claiming that Badrul had failed to attend state assembly sittings for six months without a valid reason.
However, Badrul challenged the decision and filed a suit before the Shah Alam High Court.
Winning first as a PKR candidate in the 2008 general election, Badrul later left the party as an indepedent in October 2009. He then joined Umno in May 2010.