Three individuals lost their appeal for leave to commence judicial review in their bid to challenge the decision of the previous government to introduce khat calligraphy in the Bahasa Melayu subject for pupils in national-type Chinese and Tamil schools.

The Court of Appeal's three-member panel comprising judges P Ravinthran, S Nantha Balan and Nordin Hassan, in a unanimous decision, dismissed their appeals.

The three are former Chinese School Students Association president Tan Kim Sen@Tan Boon Tak, Persatuan Hindu Agamam Ani Malaysia chairperson D Ravi and R Visa Letchumy.

Nordin, who delivered the decision in online proceedings, said the High Court was correct in dismissing the trio's leave application for judicial review as it was filed out of time, in addition to them not showing good reason to extend the time period to file their application.

The High Court's decision was justified and it was unnecessary for the appellate court to interfere with the judge's discretion, he added.

Nordin pointed out the law provided that an application for leave to commence judicial review should be filed within 30 days when the decision that an applicant sought to challenge was first communicated to him or her, adding that the court may extend the period for filing the leave application if there was a good reason given by the applicant.

The decision to implement the teaching of khat in schools was on Aug 14, 2019, and the appellants filed their leave for judicial review on May 20, 2020, which was a delay of nine months.

He said the High Court found that the contention by the appellants that the movement control order and conditional movement control order were enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic on March 18, 2020, and May 4, 2020, respectively, could not be considered reasons to delay filing the leave application.

The appeals brought by Tan, Ravi and Visa were without merit and the court affirmed the April 20, 2020, High Court decision in dismissing their application, he added.

No order, however, was given on costs as he said the case was of public interest.

In the court's decision, Nordin also said when the appellants filed their application for leave, there was no decision to implement the teaching of khat as evidence showed that based on a cabinet decision, the implementation of khat calligraphy was replaced with Jawi writing.

The trio filed the application in May 2020 against the education minister and the government, claiming that the previous government’s decision to introduce khat calligraphy to Year Four pupils of national-type Chinese and Tamil schools was against the Federal Constitution.

Lawyers T Gunaseelan and Keshvinjeet Singh represented the trio while senior federal counsel Nik Isfahanie Tasnim Wan Ab Rahman and Federal Counsel Ng Wee Li appeared for the education minister and the government.

- Bernama