KOTA KINABALU: The Court of Appeal here has postponed the date to hear the Federal Government's appeal against a Kota Kinabalu High Court decision to grant Sabah lawyers leave for judicial review on Putrajaya's constitutional duty to pay 40% to the state.
The appeal which was supposed to be heard on Sept 14, will now be heard sometime in November, said the Sabah Law Society (SLS).
SLS president Roger Chin said they were informed of the postponement last week, and a new date had yet to be set.
He was unsure why the case was being postponed, but guessed "maybe there were too many other cases for the court to handle".
He said this was not something the SLS was happy about but they had to adhere to court orders.
"Of course we are not happy as this is something extremely important to the people of the state and which we have waited for 50 years already," said Chin when contacted.
SLS through its lawyers Dr David Fung and Jeyan Marimuthu filed the leave application in June last year after the federal and state governments announced a special five-year annual grant of RM125.6mil for Sabah in April last year.
The Sabah government had since supported the SLS action and applied to become a second respondent. The state was represented by counsel Tengku Datuk Fuad Ahmad.
The AGC was represented by Suzana Atan.
The crux of the issue was whether the Federal Government had failed to hold the second review of Sabah’s 40% Special Grant in 1974 in accordance with Articles 112C and 112D of the Constitution and if there was a Constitutional breach.
In July, the Attorney General's Chambers filed an application to set aside the Nov 11, 2022, Kota Kinabalu High Court decision allowing the Sabah Law Society (SLS) leave to seek judicial review on the 40% special grant for Sabah.
