Four purported undangs who sought to remove Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as the Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan have withdrawn their bid to obtain court permission for a judicial review.
High Court judge Norliza Othman allowed the withdrawal after lawyer Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz informed the court that he had been instructed to discontinue the application.
However, the judge barred the four applicants — purported chieftains of Sungai Ujong, Rembau, Jelebu and Johol — from filing a fresh application over the same subject matter.
Norliza also ordered each applicant to pay RM10,000 in costs to each of the four proposed interveners: current Sungai Ujong undang Faris Johari, Rembau undang Hassan Ab Hamid, the Negeri Sembilan Dewan Keadilan dan Undang (DKU), and its secretary Raja Norazli Raja Nordin.
The applicants were not ordered to pay costs to the respondents, comprising the Negeri Sembilan menteri besar and the state government.
Senior federal counsel Nurhafizza Azizan, who represented the Attorney General, did not object to the withdrawal.
However, lawyer Steven Thiru, representing the DKU and Raja Norazli, urged the court to impose RM10,000 in costs for each of his clients.
Thiru argued that the applicants had failed to disclose that they had already initiated related proceedings at the Seremban High Court involving two other individuals.
“This application here was an abuse of process because the four applicants did not disclose pending proceedings in the Seremban High Court,” he said.
He said the DKU and its secretary had obtained an injunction on June 5, followed by leave to commence committal proceedings against the six individuals on July 8.
Thiru described the case as an alleged instance of “forum shopping” and suppression of material facts from the Kuala Lumpur High Court, referring to the judicial review application filed on July 17.
He also argued that the applicants’ failure to make full and frank disclosure showed a lack of respect for the court.
“They want to decide what the court should and should not know,” he said.
Thiru further warned that failing to impose costs could effectively give litigants a licence to abuse the court process.
Lawyers Robert Low, representing Hassan, and Jasmine Irisa Ahmad Mirza, representing Faris, supported Thiru’s submissions.
The DKU, Raja Norazli, Faris and Hassan had applied in August to intervene in the judicial review and sought access to the full cause papers.
Thiru appeared with Shafrin Halim and Gurjeevan Singh Sachdev for the DKU and Raja Norazli, while Hafizuddin Yusof and Hariz Yusoff assisted Low.
