The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ordered the home minister to reply within 14 days on whether he approves or rejects the application for registration filed by the Human Rights Party (HRP).

Justice Rohana Yusof ordered the minister to reply within the timeframe upon receiving the court order.

The HRP had submitted its application in 2009 and does not know the status of its application as there has been no response or correspondence from the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Lawyer P Uthayakumar represented the HRP, while senior federal counsel Effendi Lazi Laden appeared for the ministry.

Uthayakumar, who is HRP pro-tem secretary, had last November re-filed the application , naming Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as the first respondent and the ROS and the Federal Territories Registrar of Societies as the second and third respondents.

Uthayakumar is seeking an order of certiorari to set aside the presumed rejection of the registration of the HRP by the Home Ministry's failure to respond within 14 days of the appeal being made on Aug 19, and the letter of rejection from the ROS.

He also wants a writ of mandamus to compel the respondents to reply to its appeal and approve the HRP as a registered political party within seven days of the court making such an order.

Uthayakumar told Malaysiakini after today's proceeding that the HRP is the only political party whose registration was not approved by the ROS out of 31 political parties.

“Why can't HRP be registered by the ROS, as Kita (Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air) has been allowed to be registered,” he asked.

In 2000, Uthayakumar said he tried to form Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia, of which he was also the pro-tem secretary, but there was no progress in the application. Hence, he applied to set up the HRP.

‘Documents not in order’

Effendi in his submission claimed that the documents submitted to the ROS were not in order and that the application did not comply with the constitution submitted.

“There is also no time limit for the ROS to respond on the application,” he said, citing the affidavit by ROS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman.

The HRP had submitted that not responding is wrong in law and argued that the ROS was unfair in not responding to its application.

       

Uthayakumar said he hopes the minister will respond.