The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and 13 individuals do not have a locus standi to seek a judicial review of the government's decision not to reveal the Selangor water concession agreement, the Kuala Lumpur High Court was told today.

Senior federal counsel Azizah Nawawi said the complainants have no legal standing to file the suit when raising preliminary objections in court today.

She also stressed that the document in question was under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and beyond the applicants' access.

Azizah is representing the Selangor and federal governments as well as Energy, Water and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik, who are the respondents named by the applicants.

The suit followed the government's rejection of the applicants' demand to see the concession agreement. They also wanted access to the auditor-general's report that the government claimed warranted last October's 15 percent increase in water tariff for Klang Valley residents.

Cabinet approval needed

MTUC secretary-general G Rajasekaran was informed in a Dec 5, 2006 letter that the governments' concession agreement with Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) and the audit report have been classified as 'secret and confidential'.

The letter also informed Rajasekaran that there was no need to disclose the auditor's report to the public as it "had already been presented to the cabinet and approved".

Following this, Lim was reported to have said the information MTUC is seeking is under the OSA and cannot be made public except with the cabinet's approval.

One of the lawyers for the applicants, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, said this morning the application for judicial review was based on their human right to water - which the applicants in their affidavits argued have been affected by the tariff increase - as well as their right to information.

He also said Azizah's assertion that the concession agreement and the audit report have been placed under the OSA has yet to be established as true, given that some parts of the concession agreement had already been disclosed to the public through media and other reports.

Justice Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim - who was supposed to hear the leave application for judicial review today - set May 15 for the hearing of the parties' oral submissions.

Met later, lawyer Derek Fernandez who is holding a watching brief for the Malaysian Bar, noted that the Supreme Court in 1988 had ruled that politician Lim Kit Siang had no locus standi to apply for an interim injunction against United Engineers (M) Sdn Bhd to restrain it from signing the North-South Highway contract.