PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed June 22 to deliver its decision in an appeal filed by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in her bid to challenge the appointment of the late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor in her RM1.25bil solar hybrid project corruption case.
A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Hanipah Farikullah said that the panel needed more time to consider the comprehensive submissions by parties and therefore reserved its decision until the said date.
"We need to read the legal authorities and the appeal records," she said here on Thursday.
Other judges on the bench were Justices Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and See Mee Chun.
At the outset of the proceedings, the court recorded no objections by parties on the presence of Justice Hanipah presiding over the civil matter as she had also presided over Rosmah's appeal, over the same matter, in the criminal proceedings.
Despite the demise of Sri Ram, Justice Hanipah said the court found that the matter contained a live issue on Sri Ram's fiat (authorisation letter) which the appellant (Rosmah) had claimed to be illegal, irregular and defective.
"In our view, his demise will not affect the appeal. I believe it will not be academic," she said, before parties began their submissions.
Rosmah's lawyer Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader submitted there was no delay by the appellant when they filed the leave application to initiate the judicial review on June 24 last year.
This is because the appellant had three months or 28 days from the date of a Federal Court's decision in their criminal application on May 27, 2022.
"The entire trial was a nullity because the fiat was not issued at the outset. We implore for this case to be sent back to the High Court for it to be heard on a substantive merit," he said.
Meanwhile, Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan argued that Rosmah was first charged on Nov 15, 2018, but only filed the leave application three years later.
"The appellant only filed the application for leave to initiate judicial review on June 25, 2022, whereby there is a delay of three years and three months and 10 days in filing the application for leave," he said.
On May 27, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Federal Court dismissed Rosmah's appeal to challenge Sri Ram's appointment, by way of an application in a criminal proceedings.
The panel decided that the criminal court had no jurisdiction to grant the declaratory relief, in relation to Sri Ram's appointment, as sought by Rosmah.
Both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court did not decide on the merits of Rosmah's appeals but allowed the preliminary objection by the respondents in its dismissals.
After failing the criminal proceedings, Rosmah then attempted the civil route by filing the leave application to initiate judicial review at the High Court on June 24, 2022.
She named the Attorney General, the government of Malaysia and Sri Ram as respondents.
In this application, Rosmah sought a declaration that the appointment of Sri Ram as senior deputy public prosecutor through three letters of appointment (fiat), dated July 8, 2020, May 11 and May 21, 2021, respectively, was unlawful.
In addition, Rosmah sought a declaration that the entire prosecution proceedings and full trial for the solar case which took place since Nov 15, 2018 until the defence closed the case were invalid and void and she must be acquitted of all charges under Section 16 (a) (A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.
On Aug 30, 2022, the High Court dismissed her application on grounds that the application for leave for judicial review made under Order 53 rule 3(6) of the Rules of Court 2012 challenging Sri Ram’s fiat must be filed within three months from the date when the grounds of application first rose or when the decision was first communicated to the applicant (Rosmah).
Rosmah is now appealing against the High Court’s dismissal.
On Sept 1, 2022, Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan (now a Court of Appeal judge) found Rosmah guilty of the corruption charges in the solar hybrid project case and sentenced her to 10 years in jail and fined RM970mil.
She has filed an appeal against her conviction and sentence and is currently out on a RM2mil bail pending her appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, Sri Ram, who was a former Federal Court judge, passed away at the age of 79 in January of this year.
