KUALA LUMPUR: A lawyer who filed legal action against the government over a departure levy imposed on Malaysians travelling overseas, lost in his bid to challenge the constitutionality of the imposition.
This was after High Court judge Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya dismissed an originating summons (OS) by R. Kengadharan today.
The court gave no order as to costs.
In her decision, the judge said she was bound by the judicial precedents set down by the Apex Court.
This was informed by Kengadharan’s counsel, A. Srimurugan, after the matter came up in chambers.
“The judge said she was bound by the Federal Court judgements in the case of Loh Wai Kong and (Damansara MP) Tony Pua and took a restrictive approach on Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution.
“She said she was bound by the higher authorities and followed the pronouncement of Loh’s case and said in Malaysia, it appears as of today, we do not have a constitutional right to travel abroad,” he said adding that both appeals in Loh and Pua's case were dismissed.
The appeal by Loh in 1979 was for a ruling that Malaysian citizens are entitled to travel overseas as a fundamental right, while Pua's appeal was on the Immigration director-general’s order to bar him from traveling overseas.
When met outside the court, Srimurugan said they will file an appeal against today's decision.
“We are definitely going to file an appeal and we want to revisit the judgement in Pua’s case.
“It is time for us to get a higher court to look at it from a fresh perspective,” he said.
Senior federal counsel Natrah Idris acted for the Finance Minister and the government as defendants in the suit.
In August last year, Kenghadharan filed the suit claiming that the departure levy imposition was unconstitutional in nature.
According to his originating summons, he claimed that the Departure Levy Act 2018 and the Departure Levy Order 2019 are in breach of his fundamental right to travel.
He had sought a declaration that they (Act and Order) breach Article 5 (1) of the Federal Constitution and cannot be enforced.