KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Following the home minister's decision to reject its appeal to be registered as a political party, the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) today withdrew its judicial review application against the minister and the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
The party now plans to file a fresh lawsuit to challenge the minister's decision to reject the party's appeal, said MUDA's lawyer Lim Wei Jiet.
"In the initial application we were asking from the court to compel the minister to make a decision on the party's appeal, which he did last week," he told The Edge when contacted.
"So the judicial review application is academic. We decided to withdraw it and an order was made by the High Court that there would be no costs.
"We will file another suit very soon to challenge the minister's decision to reject MUDA's appeal to be registered as a party," he added.
The application to withdraw was made before High Court judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin this afternoon.
On Aug 12, then home minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin dismissed MUDA's appeal for the party to be registered but no reasons were given.
This came after senior federal counsel M Kogilambigai said that Hamzah had made a decision on the party's registration but she did not know the outcome.
The judicial review application was filed on April 26 by MUDA founder and Muar member of parliament Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and 12 others. The court granted them leave to initiate the application on May 25.
In the application, they sought a mandamus order for the home minister to reach a decision under Section 18 of the Societies Act 1966 on their appeal against the RoS' Jan 6 decision to refuse to register MUDA as a political party.
On Feb 4, MUDA submitted an appeal on its registration as a political party to the RoS and Hamzah.