Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin will decide on the panel of judges to hear the Selangor government’s appeal against the Election Commission's (EC) redelineation of electoral constituencies.

This comes after the Selangor government submitted an application to recuse two of the judges on the panel today, Justice Zawawi Salleh and Justice Kamardin Hisham.

The judges decided to adjourn the case to March 27 and revert to Justice Zulkefli to decide on the panel of judges then.

“Hopefully the panel will be constituted and decided by the Court of Appeal president,” said Justice Zawawi, who led the three-member bench today that included Justice Kamardin and Justice Vernon Ong.

The state government’s lead counsel Cyrus Das had argued that there was an “element of predetermination” as the two judges were previously involved in similar cases involving the EC.

Das also pointed out the importance of public perception in the judicial process.

The panel of judges to hear this case will be decided on March 27.

The hearing on the Selangor government’s appeal is expected to take place on the same day.

In December last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the Selangor government’s judicial review application to challenge the EC’s redelineation exercise in the state.

Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan dismissed the application mainly due to a binding Court of Appeal ruling.

However, the judge granted a stay on the EC conducting local inquiries in Selangor.

The Court of Appeal also today decided to set aside this stay granted by Justice Azizul.

However, the EC had been allowed an interim stay by the Court of Appeal in December last year to conduct local inquiries into objections to the redelineation exercise in the state.