KUALA LUMPUR: Former minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin failed to obtain a court order to declare her as the rightful Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) president.
This was after High Court Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh dismissed the former Ampang member of parliament leave to initiate a judicial review application against the Registrar of Societies (RoS) today.
Amarjeet in his judgment said Section 18C of the Societies Act 1966 prevented the court to make inquiries into the internal matters of political parties.
"This court is also bound by the binding precedent set by the Court of Appeal," he said.
On April 12, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) objected to Zuraida's application by arguing that the dispute in PBM is an internal matter for the parties to resolve.
Zuraida's counsel, Mohamed Ashmeer Ashrof, argued that the dispute had been settled and a notice was sent to RoS in October last year.
However, he said the RoS did not recognise his client as the party president.
Zuraida, 65, who filed the application on March 24 and named the RoS as the sole respondent, sought a declaration that RoS' action to retain Datuk Larry Soon @ Larry Sng Wei Shen as the president of PBM was unlawful, and a mandamus order to compel RoS to recognise her as PBM's rightful president effective Oct 7, 2022.
In her supporting affidavit, Zuraida said she received a letter from PBM on Oct 27, 2022, informing her about her appointment as PBM president.
However, Zuraida said she had received a letter from the party dated Dec 19 of the same year, in which Soon declared himself as the PBM president and suspended her membership.
The former plantation industries and commodities minister said she learned of her sacking from the PBM through The Star news portal on Dec 27, 2022, but never received any notice, letter or information from the party about it.