KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 14): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his son Datuk Nazifuddin Najib last night filed a motion to seek leave to appeal to the Federal Court, over last week's Court of Appeal decision, to dismiss their appeal over a summary judgement entered on them over their unpaid taxes of RM1.69 billion and RM37.64 million respectively.
The motion was filed by Messrs Shafee & Co.
Along with the motion, nine questions of law pertaining to income tax were posed before the apex court.
In civil cases, parties appealing have to seek leave (permission) from the apex court for the full merits of the appeal to be heard and decided on the questions of law.
It is not automatic for the merits in civil cases to be heard as permission or what is termed as leave has to be gained first.
A summary judgement that has been awarded to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) in this case is where the court is of the view that the defendants have no triable issues with regard to their defence, and if it were to proceed in a full trial, it would have the effect of delaying a judgement entered on the defendants.
The nine questions are:
Section 106 (3) of the Income Tax Act stipulates that the court shall not entertain any plea that the amount of tax sought to be recovered is excessive, incorrectly assessed, under appeal or incorrectly increased.
Although the nine questions of law have been posed, the bench may decide to reduce the number of questions or even decide there are no merits for the appeal to be heard fully when the motion is heard by the Federal Court bench.
On Sept 9, a three-member bench led by Justice Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil dismissed Najib and Nazifuddin's appeal on the grounds there is no merit in the two appeals and no error in the judgement of the two High Court judges.
The Court of Appeal bench that also comprised Justices Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Datuk Supang Lian was unanimous in the decision and ordered Najib and Nazifuddin to pay RM10,000 costs each.
The court allowed a stay of its decision provided that the notice of appeal is filed by this week, and the lawyers did so by filing it last night.