Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram reminded the Pakatan Harapan government that the controversial National Security Council Act 2016, which it wants to retain and only review, is unconstitutional.

Sri Ram told Malaysiakini today that the NSC Act is unconstitutional because it had by-passed the Conference of Rulers and the government then did not obtain the royal assent before gazetting it as law.

"The Act that amended the Federal Constitution to do away with the Royal Assent in certain circumstances is itself unconstitutional.

"Also, this is a security statute and must comply with Article 149 of the Federal Constitution," Sri Ram said.

Article 149 stipulates provisions for a new law concerning security that must be followed - and the NSC Act did not comply with these provisions.

Sri Ram said the NSC Act should be repealed and if the government wants such a law, then it must be re-drafted to comply with the constitution.

"The previous administration obviously had no respect for the Rule of Law. The present (Harapan) government says it respects the Rule of Law. Therefore it should act accordingly."

Sri Ram is also one of the lawyers representing PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in his challenge to the NSC Act, for which the Federal Court has already granted leave.

Azmi: Follow your manifesto

Universiti Malaya law lecturer Azmi Sharom told a radio station today that the NSC Act is a terrible law and should be repealed.

Azmi (photo) said Harapan has promised to repeal it and it should comply with what it promised in the manifesto.

"There already exist sufficient laws to handle security matters and there is certainly no need for this.

"NSC is already a bad law has been criticised by many quarters. This new government should decide to repeal it," he said.

Azmi added that there is no purpose for this law to remain as there are other existing laws.

Both Sri Ram and Azmi said this when asked to comment on Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu's statement, in which he said the NSC Act would not be repealed but be restructured.

Mohamad, who is better known as Mat Sabu, was quoted by an English news portal as saying that the government was looking to review (the Act), because NSC actually is a good vehicle, especially for government officers to serve the government.

“What we have to control is, we don’t want it to become a party's (tool), where we try to instigate, to pressure them to support Amanah or to support Bersatu or to support DAP,” he was quoted as saying.