I refer to the Malaysiakini report Zambry vs Sivakumar: Court revokes suspension .

Last Friday, as I reached home and placed the day's papers on the coffee table and my 10-year old son asked, ‘Dad, what's ‘ultra vires'? Is it some kind of disease?'

Obviously, his eyes had caught the main news of the day.

‘No, son', I said. ‘There's no such disease called ‘'ultra vires' that I know of. Well...it's something to do with law ...'

Before I could finish the sentence, my son broke into his ‘Your tea is ready, dad'. Well, let me finish what I had in mind to say to my son. I'll be brief.

‘Ultra vires' is a Latin phrase which literally means ‘beyond the powers'. In simple words it means beyond the power of a body or authority.

I can tell you it is not a difficult legal concept. Let's apply it to decision-making. In making a decision, a decision-maker must have the powers to make the decision.

It follows that the decision maker must know the limit of his or her authority. He or she must not exceed the authority or power that he or she has been granted with.

The decision-maker can be any body which has rules, such as local authorities, companies, societies, trade unions and state assemblies. And courts, too, for that matter. The limitations to the power can come from the body's own rules and regulations, if not statute.

In short, the limitations come from the governing law or laws. So that if a decision made is beyond the power of the decision-making body, we say it is one that is ultra vires the ... (governing law or laws).

Let's apply the concept to the Perak speaker and his decision to suspend Datuk (now Datuk Seri) Dr Zambry Abd Kadir and six other assembly persons from attending the state assembly.

If the decision is beyond the speaker's power to make according to the state constitution, Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly and all relevant laws, rightly we say it is ‘ultra vires' these laws.

The federal court has indeed so ruled.

Now, let's apply the concept to the federal court's ruling that the Perak speaker's decision to suspend the seven assembly persons was ‘ultra vires' the aforesaid laws.

You and I and just about everyone now know of Article 72(1) of the federal constitution.

It says: ‘The validity of any proceedings in the legislative assembly of any state shall not be questioned in any court.'

And everyone knows that the federal constitution is the supreme law of the land.

So what can we say of the federal court's ruling? I've said that I'll be brief. You figure it out yourself. I can tell you it is not a difficult task to do.

By the way, ‘proceeding' refers to any step, no matter how informal, taken in the course of or in relation to a body's functions and responsibilities. (See Leonard Hastings Ainsworth & Anor. V. Criminal Justice Commission, High Court Australia)