The High Court in Shah Alam today ruled that the summons issued by the Selangor legislative assembly in ordering lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun to appear before the House rights and privileges committee to answer charges for contempt of the assembly was void because it was against the federal constitution.

Justice Zaleha Yusof also ruled that the summons received by Mohd Hafarizam last April 12 was ultra vires and not in accordance with the law.

Zaleha said Mohd Hafarizam was only doing his duty as a lawyer when sending a letter of demand to the legal firm which represented the Selangor state assembly speaker Teng Chang Khim and that the letter was not addressed to the Selangor assemblyperson.

“It is clear that the alleged contempt did not arise within the walls of the Selangor state legislative assembly. It was a normal letter of demand between two solicitors under the Legal Profession (Practice and Ethics) Rules 1978 and I cannot see how it would affect the power and privileges of the state assembly.     

“Schedule of Article 77 of the Selangor state assembly merely empowers the assembly to order a person to attend and to give evidence or to produce documents before it but not to answer the charge and the summon clearly contains the charge,” she said in a written judgment which was read out by deputy registrar Azmil Muntapha Abas.

As such, Zaleha allowed an application filed by Mohd Hafarizam on April 26 this year to quash the Selangor state assembly’s order. He had named the Selangor state assembly, the House rights and privileges committee secretary Mohamad Yasid Bidin and the committee as defendants.

However, the amount of costs had yet to be fixed and lawyer Aisha Abdul Mubarak , who represented Mohd Hafarizam, offered RM30,000.

Besides Aisha, Mohd Hafarizam was also represented by lawyer Wan Azmir Wan Majid, while the defendants were represented by lawyer Morzawani Morni.

Lawyer Muhammad Afiq Muhammad Noor held a watching brief for the Malaysian Bar Council.

On April 1, Port Klang assemblyperson Badrul Hisham Abdullah and Mohd Hafarizam were referred to the Selangor state assembly’s rights and privileges committee for contempt of the state assembly for sending a notice to Teng which was deemed very indecent, insolent and in threatening terms.

Teng had declared the Port Klang seat vacant, claiming that Badrul Hisham was absent without leave from the state assembly sitting for six consecutive months.

Following which, Badrul Hisham, who was represented by Mohd Hafarizam, filed a summons against Teng for declaring his seat vacant, and on Feb 18, the High Court dismissed an application by the Selangor speaker to strike out the suit and ordered the speaker to pay RM40,000 in costs to Badrul Hisham.

- Bernama