Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has been granted leave by the Federal Court to appeal against the rejection of its application to be registered as a political party.

PSM pro-tem secretary-general S Arutchelvan told malaysiakini that this is a moral victory for the party.

"This way we know that, if we lose, we would have exhausted all legal means possible to get the party registered," he said.

Justices Abdul Aziz Mohamad, Arifin Zakaria and Abdul Hamid Haji Mohamad granted the application today on the basis that the constitutional issues surrounding the case should be heard.

However, they also decided that the Bar Council and human rights groups Hakam and Suaram would not be allowed to hold a watching brief on behalf of PSM.

Arutchelvan said PSM's counsel Tommy Thomas, who was in court this morning, and other lawyers Ragunath Kesavan and Teng Chang Khim would expedite an application to get a hearing date soon.

PSM, whose members consist mainly of estate and industrial workers, is the first party to take the home ministry to court after having tried for nine years since 1998 to register as a political party.

In 2003, the Shah Alam High Court dismissed its appeal against the Registrar of Societies' (ROS) decision to reject the application. PSM then went to the appellate court, but failed there as well last August.

In that decision, Justice Gopal Sri Ram said the ROS requires the party to include representatives from at least seven states to be registered as a national party. The party was instead granted registration as a Selangor-based party.

A dispute arose later when party members claimed that the entity was not even registered, after a check with ROS Selangor.

The clarification of state-level registration, as well as fulfilment of the 'national status' requirement will be among key issues raised in the Federal Court.

The party had initially submitted the names of 13 representatives from nine states, but the ROS has never clarified whether they are required to be born in those states or whether it is sufficient for them to have worked there for several years.