KUALA LUMPUR: PKR vice-president Tian Chua will not be able to defend his Batu seat in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).
This follows the High Court’s decision which dismissed his originating summons on grounds that the action brought against the Returning Officer (RO) and the Election Commission (EC) was an election dispute.
Tian Chua whose real name is Chua Tian Chang, 55, was challenging the decision of the RO, Anwar Mohd Zain, who rejected his nomination papers to defend the Batu parliamentary seat.
Judge Datuk Nordin Hassan in his judgement said the court does not have the jurisdiction to determine the validity of the RO’s decision in rejecting Tian Chua’s nomination paper, nor to grant the declarations he had sought for.
“The applicant’s challenge on the rejection of his nomination paper by the RO, should be brought by way of an election petition before an election judge as required under Article 118 of the Federal Constitution.
“This court has no jurisdiction to hear reliefs sought by the applicant (Tian Chua) or to determine the validity of the RO’s decision as it is the jurisdiction of an election judge,” he said making no order as to costs.
He made the decision after allowing a preliminary objection raised by the respondents (Anwar and the EC).
Nordin added that Regulation 7(1) of the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulation 1981 provides the remedy to any person aggrieved by the decision of the RO to present the election petition on his decision.
“In the circumstances, the applicant has filed an OS seeking declaration mentioned earlier instead of filing an election petition in contrary of Article 118,” the judge said.
The respondents were represented by senior federal counsel Alice Loke Yee Ching, Suzana Atan, Shamsul Bolhassan and Azizan Md Arshad while Tian Chua was represented by counsel Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijar and Datuk S. Ambiga.
On April 30, Tian Chua filed an OS against the RO and EC for not allowing him to contest in the Batu Parliamentary seat.
In his suit, the former Batu Member of Parliament had sought a court declaration that he was entitled to be nominated for and to contest for the seat, according to Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution.
His nomination was rejected on the basis that the Shah Alam High Court, on March 2, fined him RM2,000 for insulting the modesty of a police officer.
He was also convicted last year of insulting a policeman and fined RM3,000, in default of three months’ jail.
He appealed – and the High Court last month reduced the fine to RM2,000 as the offence did not involve bodily harm.
Meanwhile, Tian Chua when met outside the court said he will file an appeal against the decision.