Aircraft engineer RK Tamileswaaran, a registered voter in Skudai, had challenged the EC’s decision to bar him from entering the polling station despite producing a negative self-test result on polling day.

His judicial review was dismissed by the High Court in 2022, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision earlier this year.

Delivering the unanimous ruling, Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said there was no novel issue for the apex court to determine.

Wan Ahmad Farid said the questions raised by the EC concerning various federal laws and by-laws had already been decided on in previous Federal Court decisions.

“The issue of constitutional damages is not relevant to this leave application, as counsel did not seek leave to pursue damages,” the chief justice said, adding that the Court of Appeal had not awarded damages since the EC’s conduct was not found to be in bad faith.

Also on the panel hearing the leave application were Chief Judge of Malaya Hashim Hamzah and Justice Nazlan Ghazali.

No order was made as to costs.

In his suit, Tamileswaaran said he had been instructed to undergo home quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

On polling day, March 12, 2022, he was on his sixth day of quarantine. Despite testing negative at 11.58am, he was denied entry to vote.

Lawyer New Sin Yew represented Tamileswaaran while senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin and Al-Saifi Hashim appeared for the EC.