The Kuala Lumpur High Court today declared the attempts by two feuding factions in the National Union of Bank Employees - one led by Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin and the other by Abdul Jalil Hamid - to claim legitimate leadership of the bank union to be illegal.

Justice Raus Sharif gave his decision after hearing an application by one of the warring NUBE faction to overturn a decision by the director general of trades union (DGTU) in endorsing leadership by a rival faction.

The two feuding sides had submitted their respective exco line-ups to the DGTU following a leadership crisis sparked off by the removal of J Solomon - who is aligned to Abdul Jalil - as general secretary in Oct 2001.

Last year, the DGTU endorsed Fauzi's line-up, prompting an application for judicial review by the Abdul Jalil's faction.

"The decision of the DGTU was made in a letter dated May 29, 2002. From that letter, it can be deduced that the DGTU rejected the form Ls (submitted by Abdul Jalil's faction). The DGTU was correct in law because they had no legal quorum," said the judge.

"But the DGTU was wrong to accept the forms submitted by (Fauzi's faction). The DGTU was aware that the officers bearers had split into two camps. There is also no quorum here. The application to quash the decision from the forms dated Nov 2, 2001 and May 5, 2002, is allowed," he added.

A Form L is a notice which has to be submitted to the DGTU to signify a change of an office bearer in the union.

Although Raus rejected the line-ups submitted by both sides stopped short of pronouncing on the validity of the Oct 30, 2001 meeting during which Fauzi's faction sought to remove Solomon.

The judge also dismissed two impromptu applications by lawyer D Kalai representing the respondents, to declare legal the decisions arising from the exco meeting held by Fauzi's side in November 2001 and to allow a stay of the quash order pending an appeal.

Raus accepted arguments by R Sivarasa, who represented the plaintiffs, that actions by the court on these two matters would further complicate other pending court cases.

Status quo?

Commenting on the decision, Abdul Jalil ( photo ) said the court decision now brings the situation with the NUBE leadership back to what it was before the open split.

"It brings us back to the old exco. The general secretary is still Solomon and there is no president, only a deputy president. The other side cannot use the approval given to them by the DGTU to claim that they are the legitimate leaders anymore," he said when contacted.

Abdul Jalil said the only way for the leadership crisis to be resolved now is for fresh elections to be called.

"We have been seeking this for some time now. The other faction also has no other choice but to go for elections," he added.

However, Fauzi had not conceded defeat with the decision of the court.

"The most pertinent point is that the court made it clear that the meetings held (by Abdul Jalil's side) from which they decided to suspend branch leaders and expel officials were illegal. The court also rejected their bid to submit their line-up so there nothing left for them to hold on to," he said when met outside the courtroom.

Fauzi ( right ) said the setting aside of the DGTU's decision to approve of his line-up was a "technical error" because of other pending court cases.

He said the crucial issue is that the court had not declared illegal the Oct 2001 meeting during which Solomon was dismissed as well as the May 2002 meeting when the new exco was appointed.

The disposal of this case by the High Court clears only one in a string of legal obstacles for the NUBE to settle its bitter leadership dispute which has been festering for two years.

Among the outstanding cases are those to decide whether Solomon's expulsion as general secretary was valid.

In addition, a special task force set up by the Human Resources Ministry is also due to produce a fresh proposal for resolution of the crisis.

The proposal is expected to call for office-bearers from both camps to quit their posts to enable the ministry to set up an interim exco pending fresh elections.

However, the ministry is not legally empowered to intervene directly in the matter.