The Court of Appeal today gave a lifeline to the de-registered Sarawak National Party (Snap), granting leave to the party to file an application to set aside the de-registration order by the Registrar of Societies'.

Court of Appeal justices Gopal Sri Ram, Mohd Saari Yusoff, Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff allowed an appeal by party president James Wong Kim Min ( photo ), requesting him to file a proper motion within 90 days.

Justice Gopal also said that the leave will also operate as a stay of the registrar's decision.

Wong's lawyers told reporters later that this means the party was revived again, pending the outcome of the case.

Order to be filed soon

They said that the application for the order of certiorari would be filed in the High Court here soon.

Wong is represented by Wong Chong Wah, Khoo Guan Huat and Benson Foo while senior federal counsels Abdul Aziz Rahim and Azizah Nawawi appeared for the ROS.

Wong is appealing against a High Court decision o­n Nov 29 last year which dismissed their application to set aside the ROS' decision .

The High Court has then dismissed with costs the application file by Wong and former Snap secretary-general Datuk Justine Jinggut.

Following the deregistration of the 41-year-old Snap, the breakaway group of the party led by state Environment and Health Minister William Mawan ( photo ), applied to the ROS to form a new party called the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), which was subsequently approved o­n Nov 9.