The High Court will proceed to hear the judicial review sought by one faction of the National Union of Bank Employees to reverse the director-general of trade union's decision to recognise the rival leadership.

The hearing at the civil appellate division has been set for Oct 6.

The two feuding factions - one led by Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin and the other by Abdul Jalil Hamid ( right ) - have been at loggerheads for over two years.

Last year, the DGTU endorsed Muhammad Fauzi's exco line-up following a leadership crisis sparked off by the removal of J Solomon - who is aligned to Abdul Jalil - as general secretary in Oct 2001.

Both sides claim to be the legitimate leadership of the 28,000-strong bank workers' union.

Abdul Jalil's group is currently operating from the union's registered premise on Lebuh Ampang while the rival group is based in nearby Kompleks Wilayah.

Justice Raus Sharif, who dismissed with costs both preliminary matters on technicalities, and ruled that the hearing of the judicial review to begin without any further delay.

Contempt of court

Abdul Jalil's group, represented by R Sivarasa, had filed a preliminary objection against the other group's application to strike out the judicial review.

In an affidavit in reply filed yesterday by Abdul Zaman Abdullah, the deputy president for Abdul Jalil, he contended that seven of the 20 respondents were in contempt of court in a related matter.

The seven - Muhammad Fauzi, Abdul Malek Daud, S Kandaiyah, Mohd Noor Basir, A Prathiba Raj, Toh Seng Hock and Mohd Azhar Yusof - should settle their contempt matter first before pursuing the application to strike out the judicial review, he said.

The contempt proceeding, for failure to return about half of the RM1.2 million withdrawn from NUBE accounts by Muhammad Fauzi's group, will be heard on Nov 13 before Justice Abdul Wahab Patail. Applications are pending to set aside the leave for the contempt proceeding..

Meanwhile, Muhammad Fauzi's group, represented by D Kalaimany ( photo ), had applied to strike out the judicial review based on a number of technicalities.

However, justice Raus dismissed both the applications and ruled that he will hear the judicial review in about three weeks time.

The leadership crisis has adversely affected the NUBE members with banks purportedly taking advantage of the confusion and uncertainty.

Parting gift for Dr M

While the court battle continues, the Human Resources Ministry has meanwhile tasked a three-member team to mediate the crisis-ridden union in a last-ditch attempt for a final solution to be determined by a fresh election.

But the peace process are in danger of being derailed by the ministry's own contradictory stance and confusing statements in the progress of the talks.

It appears to be in a haste to resolve the NUBE's two-year dispute and present it as a farewell gift to outgoing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, without giving much thought to the legal and administrative ramifications.

The bitter battle has seen numerous police reports lodged by both factions alleging each other of fraud, including one by the DGTU against the NUBE for financial discrepancies based on an investigative audit report commissioned by the ministry.

Pursuant to that, Abdul Jalil's team filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Agency against the DGTU for negligence in discharging his duties as a government servant.