KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional has secured a temporary reprieve after the High Court today allowed its application to stay its suspension and subsequent deregistration by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
The decision comes just nine days before nomination day for the Melaka election, paving the way for the coalition to resume its political activities and preparations to contest under its own name and symbol.
High Court judge Datuk Azizan Md Arshad ruled that RoS' decision to cancel PN's registration on Oct 20 did not render the coalition's application for a stay academic.
He said exceptional circumstances warranted granting the stay, particularly the potential harm to PN's political activities and its participation in the upcoming election.
Azizan said certain consequences, including the loss of an opportunity to participate in an election, could not be remedied once they had occurred.
"The court must also consider which party would suffer greater prejudice if the stay was granted or refused.
"Granting the stay would not prejudice the respondents, as PN's political activities could still be monitored by the authorities," he said.
Azizan made the ruling after hearing submissions from lawyer Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun, representing PN, and senior federal counsel Nurhaffiza Azizan, representing RoS director-general Datuk Mohd Zulfiqar Ahmad and Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
In his decision, Azizan said the main issue raised by the respondents was whether PN's stay application had become academic following RoS' decision to cancel its registration before today's hearing.
The government had argued that the cancellation rendered the stay application ineffective as the administrative action PN sought to prevent had already taken place.
However, Azizan disagreed, saying the court could not determine whether an application had become academic merely because the administrative action being challenged had already occurred.
"The court had to examine the relief sought in its entirety to determine whether there remained a real issue requiring determination."
He acknowledged that a stay order could not automatically restore a registration that had already been cancelled.
However, the judge said the issuance and enforcement of the cancellation notice did not, by themselves, extinguish the purpose of PN's application.
Azizan stressed that his decision did not determine whether RoS' decision to cancel PN's registration was lawful, as that issue would be decided during the substantive judicial review.
The court allowed the stay application pending the full disposal of the judicial review, with no order as to costs.
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