IPOH, 2 April 2009: The High Court here today postponed to 9 April hearing of an application by Perak state assembly speaker V Sivakumar to strike out a suit against him by Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.
Justice Datuk Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim set the date to give Zambry’s counsel ample time to reply to the new affidavit filed by Sivakumar yesterday.
Firoz Hussien Ahmad Jamaluddin, for Zambry, when met by reporters outside the court, said Zambry was only served with the new affidavit late yesterday and his team needed to respond to the new issues raised.
He said the new issue concerned the meeting held under the tree which the defendants claimed to be a meeting of the state legislative assembly.
In the suit filed on 2 March, Zambry and six other state executive councillors are seeking a declaration that the speaker’s decision in suspending and preventing them from attending the assembly’s sittings is null and void.
Sivakumar, in an unprecendented move, suspended the seven for 12 to 18 months on 18 Feb.
Firoz Hussien said the issue was not a complicated one and they needed one or two days to file their reply as they had already expressed their views on the unconstitutionality of the meeting under the tree and contended that it was not a state assembly meeting.
Asked on the Attorney-General’s application to be an intervenor in the proceedings, Firoz Hussien said Wan Afrah allowed the application on the basis that the AG was the guardian of the public interest.
Meanwhile, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail told reporters that he also sought an adjournment and told the judge that there might be something wrong with the affidavit filed by Sivakumar’s counsel. — Bernama
