The Malaysian Bar has no right to challenge attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali's decision to absolve Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of wrongdoing in the RM2.6 billion donation scandal, said a veteran lawyer.

Citing the British judiciary, Shafee Abdullah said only victims had a right to seek judicial reviews.

"The Bar Council is not the victim. They may not have local standi . They could be regarded as a busybody because they have no locus standi ," Shafee told reporters at the parliament lobby today.

He also doubted that the Bar would succeed in its review application as it does not have the full facts of the case like Apandi does.

"If they don’t have the full facts, how would they persuade the court to review the AG’s decision. They cannot. It’s just impossible."

He added that if the decision cannot be proven wrong, then they cannot remove Apandi as the country’s top lawyer.

Shafee chastised the Bar for behaving like a political party.

"The Bar Council is like the opposition. We don’t care whether they support the government or opposition, they can’t do either, (they must be) non-partisan," he said.

Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru revealed on Tuesday that the Bar has filed the application for judicial review on grounds that the attorney-general's discretionary power is not absolute or unfettered.

This is over Apandi's decision to clear Najib, who received deposits of RM42 million from state-owned SRC International and RM2.6 billion from an offshore account in his personal bank accounts.

The Malaysian Bar is also seeking for Apandi to be disqualified from making further decisions relating to the case and request that they be delegated to the solicitor-general, as Apandi had reportedly advised Najib on the cases.

It also wants the solicitor-general to render all assistance required by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating the case, including invoking the mutual legal assistance, which Apandi has refused to do.