PUTRAJAYA, July 31 — The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on the Malaysian Bar's appeal against the High Court's refusal to grant leave to commence a judicial review challenging the Federal Territories Pardons Board's decision to reduce former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's prison sentence and fine in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
A three-member bench led by Judge Datuk Lim Chong Fong reserved its decision after hearing submissions from counsel Datuk Yeo Yang Poh and Zainur Zakaria, for the Malaysian Bar, Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi, representing the Attorney-General, and Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
"We need time to deliberate, and we have fixed August 7 for case management to set a date to deliver the decision," said Justice Lim, who sat with Justices Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Datuk Leonard David Shim.
In November 2024, the High Court had dismissed the Malaysian Bar's application for leave to commence judicial review proceedings to quash the Pardons Board's decision.
Earlier, Yeo submitted that the Pardons Board's decision is justiciable.
"The judicial review application is not to review the power of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong but to challenge the decision of the Pardons Board. It is important for leave to be granted at this stage.
"We pray that the appeal be allowed and the case be remitted to the High Court for a substantive hearing," he said, adding that the matter brought upon by the appellant was not frivolous.
Meanwhile, Hanir submitted that the High Court judge was correct in ruling that the application was non-justiciable and frivolous.
The prerogative of mercy under Article 42 of the Federal Constitution is not susceptible to judicial review.
"Therefore, the AG submits that if the decision to grant a pardon is not susceptible to judicial review, it follows that the process leading to it is also not susceptible to judicial review," he said, as Shafee also adopted Hanir's submissions.
The Bar had originally filed the application on April 26, 2024, naming the Pardons Board of the Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya Federal Territories, as well as Najib, as respondents.
It had sought a declaration that the Pardons Board's January 29, 2024 decision to halve Najib's prison sentence, resulting in his early release on August 23, 2028, was illegal, unconstitutional, and void.
The Bar is also seeking a declaration that the Pardons Board's decision to reduce Najib's fine from RM210 million to RM50 million is similarly illegal, unconstitutional and void.
The reduction came with the condition that failure to settle the fine would extend his prison term by one year, pushing his early release to August 23, 2029.
Najib, 73, has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison since August 23, 2022, after being convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.
He filed a petition for a royal pardon on September 2, 2022, which resulted in the Pardons Board halving his prison sentence from 12 years to six years and reducing his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
