KUALA LUMPUR (May 12): Ten voters who had filed a lawsuit against Gombak MP Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali have filed an appeal with the Federal Court against a Court of Appeal (CoA) decision to strike out their suit. 

Last month, the CoA had allowed Azmin’s appeal and set aside an earlier High Court decision which dismissed Azmin’s application to strike out the suit. 

The voters had initially sued Azmin for alleged deceit and breach of fiduciary duty.

The 10 voters had filed nine questions of law in order to obtain leave from the Federal Court to hear their merit of appeal. 

Some of the questions cited by theedgemarkets.com are:

“Whether an action for deceit and/or breach of fiduciary duties can be maintained by voters against a member of Parliament (MP) or a member of a State Legislative Assembly (ADUN) (collectively, elected representative) for representations made by the said member personally to the voters?

“Whether it is necessary in an action for deceit and/or breach of fiduciary duties by a voter against an elected representative, on the basis of untrue representations made by the elected representative personally to voters, to show that the voter in question voted for the said elected representative?

“Whether an elected representative's rights to freedom of association under Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution are subject to his fiduciary duties as an elected representative?

“Whether an elected representative's right to freedom of association under Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution is a sufficient defence in law to an action for deceit or breach of fiduciary duties in relation to the conduct of an MP?"

In the CoA's decision on April 13, a three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk Lee Heng Cheong and Datuk Hashim Hamzah said the voters’ claim was unsustainable and bound to fail.

“There is no necessity for the suit to proceed for full trial,” said Justice Yaacob. 

Azmin was appealing High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir's decision to dismiss the former's application to strike out the suit.

In delivering his decision in June last year, Justice Akhtar said there were triable issues in the matter. The trial was set to take place from June 7 to June 10 this year but was quashed by the CoA. 

The suit was filed in November 2020 by 10 registered voters from the Gombak parliamentary constituency against Azmin for alleged deceit and breach of fiduciary duty through the "Sheraton Move" that caused the Pakatan Harapan government to collapse in February 2020.

This will be the last appeal for the voters.

Azmin is currently the International Trade and Industry Minister. He is also a Parti Bersatu Supreme Council member.