KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — The High Court here today ruled that the police had acted ultra vires (beyond powers) to impose a condition that absolutely prohibited the Malaysian Bar Council’s assembly and march, dubbed the Walk for Judicial Independence in 2022.

The assembly and march were to protest the actions of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which publicly announced an investigation into a Court of Appeal Judge (Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali), which was considered an interference with the judiciary’s independence and a violation of the basic principle of separation of powers.

Today, Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong held that the Peaceful Assembly Act does not allow the then Dang Wangi Police District chief ACP Noor Dellhan Yahaya as the first defendant, to stop or ban an assembly from being held.

“He (Noor Dellhan) can only impose conditions to ensure the participants’ safety and avoid nuisance to road users.

“The court hereby declares that the first defendant as the officer in charge of the Dang Wangi Police District acted ultra vires on June 15, 2022, in imposing conditions under Section 15 of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 prohibiting a march to Parliament by the assembly to be organised by the plaintiff on June 17, 2022, and acted ultra vires on June 17, 2022, in prohibiting the march from taking place.

“Therefore, the court sets nominal damages of RM1, which the defendant must pay to the first plaintiff,” the judge said, adding that the was no order regarding costs because the case involved public interest.

The nominal damages of RM1 was proposed by the Malaysian Bar’s counsel New Sin Yew and agreed upon by senior federal counsel Mohammad Al-Saifi Hashim.

On Oct 20, 2022, the then Bar Council president Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, current president Mohamad Ezri Abdul Wahab, vice-president B. Anand Raj and secretary Murshidah Mustafa, as the first to fifth plaintiffs, filed the suit through Messrs AmerBON at the High Court here.

In the suit, they named former Dang Wangi Police District chief ACP Noor Dellhan Yahaya, its head of Criminal Investigations Department DSP Nuzulan Mohd Din, PDRM, Inspector-General of Police, the Home Minister and the Malaysian Government as the first to sixth defendants.

In the statement of claim, the plaintiffs claimed that all the defendants had violated their rights under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 by preventing them and their 500 members and interns from holding a rally and marching from the Padang Merbok parking lot to the main entrance of the Parliament on June 17, 2022, to submit a memorandum to then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob or his representative.

All the plaintiffs claimed that the defendants had committed misconduct in public office (misfeasance) by arresting them wrongly, causing them to lose their freedom and damage their reputation due to wrongful arrest in addition to a loss of RM19,449 for the Bar Council for the cost incurred for the march.

The plaintiffs are demanding special damages amounting to RM19,449, general damages, and excessive and exemplary costs in addition to seeking a declaration that the plaintiff’s rights have been violated and a declaration that their detention was illegal and wrong in law. — Bernama