The Federal Court should have used its inherent power to order the immediate release of the reformasi activists without the necessity of another habeas corpus application when it allowed their appeals on Sept 6, said prominent criminal lawyer Karpal Singh.

In a phone interview yesterday, he said the Federal Court should not have gone on technical grounds in considering the five activists' habeas corpus applications seeking to declare their arrest and detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) as unlawful.

He said Article 5 (2) of the Federal Constitution provides the court with wide powers to inquire into a complaint, either in oral or written form, thus dispensing with the need for a fresh application.

Karpal was referring to the half-measure behind the court pronouncement that, despite finding the initial 60-day detention of the five unlawful and in bad faith, the resultant two-year detention orders signed by Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would not be affected by the decision.