Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 24, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed an application by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) for a judicial commissioner (JC) to recuse himself from hearing a suit made by the state government and Sarawak Comptroller of State Sales Tax (SST) against the national oil and gas company.

JC Christopher Chin also awarded costs of RM50,000 to the plaintiffs.

He, however, allowed Petronas to present its application for a stay of proceedings of the suit on Feb 5, pending an appeal at the Court of Appeal over Chin’s decision.

The state government and Sarawak Comptroller of SST filed its suit on Nov 21 to recover the SST owed by Petronas to the state.

Following this, Petronas, through its lead counsel Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, applied for Chin’s recusal from hearing the suit on the grounds that the situation gave rise to an appearance of a conflict of interest, and that the application was made in the best interests of the administration of justice.

According to him, a JC is a probationary judge who does not have the security of tenure of a confirmed judge, and is confirmed when appointed to the position by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong who acts on the advice of the prime minister.

“Petronas reports to the prime minister under the Petroleum Development Act 1974,” he added.

In his judgement, Chin said it is unlikely that JCs would be perceived by the informed casual observer as suffering from any perceived notion of bias just because their appointments as confirmed judges are subjugated under the prime minister.

Petronas is also seeking a judicial review to declare the SST imposed by the state government as ultra vires to the Federal Constitution and null and void, with the hearing fixed from Feb 3 to 5.

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