Federal Court denies Catholic Church larger panel in final ‘Allah’ bid

Catholic newsweekly Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew seen at the Federal Court in Putrajaya today. The court has denied the Catholic Church a larger panel to hear its review application on using the word Allah in its publication. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, January 21, 2015.

The Catholic Church began its final move to appeal a ban against the use of the word Allah in the Federal Court today by asking for a larger bench to hear its review application.

Lead counsel for the church, Datuk Dr Cyrus V. Das, made an application to enlarge the quorum of the five-member bench which appeared today.

He said the church's application under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court must not be seen to be doomed to fail because of the incapacity of a smaller bench.

He added it was normal to have a larger panel review the findings of a smaller one.

"We concerned since the earlier panel was made up of seven judges.

"Given the public importance of the case and the current practice of the appellate court, that a review is always by a larger bench, a larger panel needs to review the findings of a smaller panel," he said.

Das was referring to the Federal Court panel in June 2014 that denied the church its leave application against the ban on using the word Allah.

But, the bench unanimously rejected the application for a larger quorum.

Federal Court judge Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Embong said the power to set up the panel belonged to the chief justice and was not for this court to decide.

He added that given that the church's review application was against the four majority judgments by the panel in June last year, the five-man bench today was in effect a larger bench.

Four judges out of the seven-man bench ruled to dismiss the church's leave application in June 2014. Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria was one of the four in the majority ruling.

Besides Hamid, the five-member panel today consists of federal court judges Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Tan Sri Hasan Lah, Datuk Ramly Ali and Datuk Azahar Mohamed.

- TMI