Bar Council seeks to dismiss EGM challenge suit
The Bar had resolved during the EGM to demand an apology from the IGP and Home Ministry over the mishandling of the Bersih 3.0 rally. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — The Malaysian Bar and the Bar Council today applied to the High Court here to strike out a suit filed by a lawyer regarding the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on May 11.
The application was submitted by lawyers Tommy Thomas and Idza Hajar Ahmad Idzam (representing the respondents) in Justice Datuk John Louis O’Hara’s chambers. Also present were lawyers Tan Sri Dr Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman and Shaharudin Ali who represented Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz.
Shaharudin told reporters that both respondents filed the application arguing that Mohd Khairul Azam did not have locus standi to file the suit.
“The Bar Council and the Malaysia Bar had also stated their grounds (in the application to strike out the suit) why the EGM was valid in terms of the law. We have been directed to file our affidavit in reply before or on June 21,” he said.
Shaharuddin also said that O’hara had fixed June 28 for case management.
Mohd Khairul Azam had named the Bar Council as the first respondent while the Malaysian Bar, its president Lim Chee Wee, and secretary Tony Woon Yeow Thong were named the second to fourth respondents.
In his statement of claim, Mohd Khairul Azam, a member of the Malaysian Bar and the Bar Council, contended that the notice calling for the EGM was issued less than seven days before May 11, adding that members of the council were not properly informed.
He asserted that Woon had issued a notice for the EGM on May 4, without mentioning whether the Bar Council had decided in their meeting previously to hold the EGM.
He said the motion discussed at the EGM breached the Sedition Act 1948 as it broached matters that were outside the legal jurisdiction regulating the defendants.
Mohd Khairul Azam claimed that members of the Malaysian Bar had been prejudiced through the motion and 14,189 members of the council had been placed in a scandalous situation through open discussion and their profession brought into ridicule.
The EGM had passed the motion with 939 votes in favour while 16 opposed and had asked the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Ministry to apologise for using excessive force on the demonstrators and the journalists during the Bersih 3.0 gathering on April 28. — Bernama
