The High Court set June 22 to hear the judicial review application filed by senior lawyer VK Lingam and two former chief justices to challenge the royal commission of inquiry’s (RCI) findings on a controversial video tape.

The judicial review application over the RCI's findings on the video recording which allegedly touched on the appointment of judges by Lingam and former Chief Justices Mohd Eusoff Chin and Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim will be heard before Justice Rohana Yusuf.

vk lingam scandal mahathir eusoff chin adnan fairuz vincent lingam High Court senior assistant registrar Jessica Ombu Kakayun fixed the date after meeting with both parties in chambers today when the case came up for case management.

Counsel Fifi Natasya Jamaluddin, who is representing Ahmad Fairuz and mentioned on behalf of Lingam, told the media that the court ordered the parties to submit affidavits-in-reply and written submissions by May 31.

On Aug 24 last year, the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 majority decision allowed the appeal brought by Lingam, Mohd Eusoff and Ahmad Fairuz to set aside the High Court’s refusal to grant leave for their applications for judicial review to quash the commission’s findings.

    

Following the appellate court’s decision, the matter was remitted to the Kuala Lumpur High Court to proceed to hear the merits of the trio’s judicial review application.

However, on Feb 7 this year, the Federal Court granted the RCI’s leave application to challenge the Appeals Court’s decision. No date has been fixed to hear the matter by the Federal Court.

In their report, the five-member panel of the RCI concluded that the video clip was authentic, and that Lingam was the person in conversation with Ahmad Fairuz over the appointment of judges.

The commission had also recommended that appropriate action be taken against six individuals, namely Lingam, Eusoff, Ahmad Fairuz, tycoon Vincent Tan, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and businessman and former minister in the prime minister’s department Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor for misconduct.

It also found that there was prima facie evidence to investigate the six men for offences under the Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, the Penal Code and the Legal Profession Act.

- Bernama