The Sarawak National Party (Snap), one of Sarawak's oldest political parties, is to know its fate on Friday whether it can proceed with its court application to challenge the decision of the Registrar of Societies in de-registering the party in December 2001.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court will sit on Friday to consider an appeal by the ROS after the Court of Appeal granted the plaintiffs James Wong Kim Min, the then party president, and Justine Jinggut, the then secretary-general and now deputy president, leave to file an application to set aside the ROS' decision.

The Court of Appeal also granted a stay of execution of the ROS' decision.

The party, now in the opposition, has been operating normally, including contesting in elections since then.

Justine told malaysiakini today that since Wong has opted out as a plaintiff, the burden is now on him to carry on for the party to apply for an order of certiorari to quash the ROS' decision.

To appeal to higher court

The court could come to a decision to allow hearing of the application and set the new dates for it or to affirm an earlier High Court decision that there is no case for the party to question the ROS' decision.

"We will appeal to the higher court if necessary," Justine said.

He said the party is sanguine about the High Court's likely decision.

Snap, a Dayak-based multi-racial party, was formed just before Sarawak's independence in 1963. Sarawak's first post-Independence chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan was the secretary-general and later became its president.

The party went through two major crises - the first resulted in the formation of a break-away group Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) in 1983 and the second in the birth of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP).

Since it was booted out of BN after the formation of SPDP in 2001, the party has failed to win any seat in state or parliamentary elections. In last May's state polls, MDC pro tem deputy president Dr Johnicol Rayang won Engkilili under 'borrowed' a Snap ticket.