Lawyer Shaharudin Ali said the originating summons was filed at the Shah Alam High Court yesterday.
“We have filed a suit to seek multiple declaratory orders and among others, a declaration that the EC is non-existent in law,” he said in a statement.
The plaintiff, Sabariah Mohd Shariff, who has named EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun, the EC and the government as defendants, also wants the Semenyih by-election scheduled on March 2 to be postponed pending the outcome of the suit.
Shaharudin said the plaintiff has also filed a certificate of urgency to move the court to hear the matter as soon as possible.
Details of the suit were not immediately available.
Shaharudin said Azhar could not single-handedly supervise, direct and control the preparation of the electoral rolls for both federal and state elections.
“It is our case that it is unimaginable that such functions can be conveniently carried out by that one, single person,” he said.
Last month, Azhar said he could function individually and all his decisions are valid and lawful under the Federal Constitution, based on advice from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
“As clarification, Article 114(1) must be read together with Article 114 (7). Both provisions conclude the function of the chairman is akin to the duty of the EC done collectively if there are vacancies due to legal requirements,” he said in a statement.
Azhar said he could function individually since there were six vacancies by operation of the law.
The vacancies were left by the former deputy chairman and five others after they resigned on Jan 1. Candidates to fill the positions have yet to be announced.
Azhar said those who questioned his authority should also read Article 114 (1) and (7) together with Section 33C of the 11th Schedule of the constitution that a decision of the EC was not affected due to vacancies.
He said the Court of Appeal had recognised that the EC could legally function if there were fewer than seven members or there were vacancies in the Attorney-General v Nurul Izzah Anwar and 10 others last year.