The Penang government failed in its judicial review to challenge the Home Ministry's order in declaring the Voluntary Patrol Unit (PPS) as an illegal organisation.

In dismissing the application, Penang High Court judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail found that PPS was a society.

However, she noted that PPS was not registered under Section 101(b)(5) of the Local Government Act which requires societies to be registered.

She said the section has to be read with Section 2 of the 1966 Societies Act that a society must register under it.

"If a society is not registered, all activities by the organisation are deemed illegal," said the judge.

Justice Hadhariah also said that according to Section 5 of the Societies Act, the minister (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) had "absolute discretion" on the matter.

She noted that the minister had based his decision on PPS being a society, uniformed group and practises a ranking system, should be registered as a society.

"There were police reports lodged against the group and some members were found to have criminal records, " the judge added.

Eric Aloysious Augustin, lawyer for the Penang government, said it was up to the latter to appeal against the decision.

PPS chief coordinator A Manickam expressed disappointment with the judgment.

"We are a group doing community service in Penang, we do it voluntarily, why punish us?" he asked.

"As for the criminal records, we have sent a list to the police but did not get a response, they should have responded to the status of the list we sent."

The Penang government named the home minister, the inspector-general of police and the Malaysian government as respondents in the judicial review application.

It sought, among others, a declaration that PPS was lawfully and properly established by the state government under the Local Government Act 1976.

It also wants the court to declare that PPS is not a society under the Societies Act 1965.

It also sought a certiorari order to quash the home minister's decision on Nov 3, 2014 which declared PPS as unlawful.

The state government is also seeking a mandamus order to compel the respondents to return all jackets, equipment, symbols, weapons or any documents belonging to PPS.