The Court of Appeal today refused Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s stay application pending the disposal of his appeal against the decision of the High Court yesterday.
A three-man bench chaired by Mohd Zawawi Salleh said the panel was not persuaded to grant the application to put on hold the RCI hearing.
“The RCI proceedings should proceed on grounds of public interest,” he said.
The High Court had earlier dismissed Mahathir’s leave application for judicial review in his bid to remove panel chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan and member Saw Choo Boon.
Justice Azizah Nawawi held that the RCI members had no powers to remove themselves and thus there could be no formal decision on their recusal.
The judge also held that the court could not give a mandamus order sought by Mahathir to advise the king to revoke the appointments of Sidek and Saw.
She said a mandamus order was only applicable to civil servants and not the government.
Last week, Mahathir filed the application, seeking to quash the RCI’s refusal to remove Sidek and Saw from the tribunal.
Mahathir, who was prime minister when the alleged scandal took place, had also asked that the five-member RCI panel be suspended from sitting pending the outcome of the court decision.
He claimed the RCI composition was a breach of natural justice as Sidek and Saw were previously members of another task force that had conducted a preliminary investigation into the losses suffered by the central bank.
Today, Mahathir’s lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla submitted to the bench that Sidek and Saw were actively involved as members of the task force that proposed that a RCI be set up to investigate the forex losses.
“The RCI chairman (Sidek) was actually the investigating officer in the task force and he could not now be the tribunal head,” he said.
He said the public must have confidence in the RCI and that any finding by the tribunal to the government could not be set aside, unlike other civil or criminal cases that went on appeal .
“The RCI was set up in July and has been given three months to complete its task but could be given an extension to finish their task. So, the court can give us the stay until the appeal is heard and disposed of,” Haniff said.
Government lawyer Amarjeet Singh said there was no special circumstance to grant a stay to Mahathir, and that a prohibition could not be given against a body set up by the government through the king.
He said a RCI finding was a mere recommendation to the government, although the report was not subject to judicial review by the court.
“The RCI recommendation has no legal effect as it is a mere proposal. Nobody is on trial,” he said.
Amarjeet said the public wanted to know what happened through the RCI.
Outside the court, Haniff told reporters Mahathir would be represented by a team of lawyers at the proceedings on Monday.
“We want to make it clear our client has no intention to evade attending the RCI but merely want to disqualify two members of the RCI,” he said.
Haniff said he wrote to the RCI secretary last week to obtain the list of witnesses who would give evidence and the documents that would be produced by conducting officers at the tribunal.
He said he had yet to get a reply.