By Debra Chong, July 19, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 – The Catholic Church won the constitutional right to print the word “Allah” in its newspaper seven months ago but a government application to stay the ruling could delay its use for a while longer.
The Court of Appeal has yet to indicate when it is taking any step to move the case along but retired jurists say it can’t take very long while a lawyer said it could take up to two years to get a hearing.
Appellate and trial division chief from the Attorney-General’s Chambers Datuk Kamaludin Md Said has confirmed that the Court of Appeal has yet to set a hearing date for the appeal.
“Nothing yet, nothing yet, nothing yet,” the government lawyer sounded exasperated when asked about the court status.
Kamaludin is the senior federal counsel representing the home ministry in the “Allah” dispute where the High Court here ruled last December 31 that the Catholic Church has a constitutional right to publish the word “Allah” to refer to God outside the Islamic context.
The Home Ministry — which had imposed the word ban on The Herald two years ago — has got a stay against the judgment pending its appeal while the Church — noting the spate of attacks on houses of worship nationwide earlier this year — agreed not to challenge the stay application.
“We’ve already filed the record of appeal so it’s up to the court to fix the date,” he stressed repeatedly.
Lack of any action at the Palace of Justice is doing little to dispel the public suspicion at the prolonged stay order.
The Church refused to comment on whether it was taking any action to speed their case along.
Former High Court judge, Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah, told The Malaysian Insider he has not heard of an indefinite stay being granted during his time on the bench.
“I’ve not heard of an indefinite stay... In my experience, the courts are venues to give finality to disputes,” said the man who quit the judiciary 14 years ago, after his 33-page letter alleging several senior judges of being on the take leaked out to the public.
“But the laws may have changed since I left the court,” he added.
A former law practitioner suggested that an indefinite stay would amount to an injunction, which is against the practices of the court.
“Meaning the Church would be prohibited from using it,” said the retiree, requesting anonymity.
He explained that under normal circumstances, the party that is appealing a judgment could get a stay order, but the appellate court should also set a time frame for the next step to ensure fair play is given to both sides.
A stay is granted to provide time for the party to file further action, and the court has the right to decide on a reasonable amount of time it would take to prepare the necessary papers.
For the “Allah” appeal to have gone on for six months without any court proceeding taking place was “very unreasonable”.
“There must be a proceeding in court,” he stressed, even if the government were to tell the judges there were other similar cases pending in the High Court and it would be better to wait for them to be finalised there and then heard one-shot.
Bar Council vice-president Lim Chee Wee, agreed that an indefinite stay meant a permanent stay, but said such a thing existed.
“Yes, there is such a thing. Usually, it’s granted pending the winding up of a company facing insolvency. “It’s very rare outside of that,” he said.
But Lim noted that in the “Allah” dispute, the home ministry’s stay was the type “pending the outcome of an appeal” and admitted “there’s no fixed time for hearing”.
“It would depend on the court diary,” he added.
Other law experts confided that the Catholic Church’s only recourse would be administrative, based on the present circumstances.
One advised the counsel for the Church to write in to the Court of Appeal to remind the registry of the pending case.
Lim appeared optimistic that the appellate court would deal with the “Allah” dispute in due time.
“Our courts are quite efficient these days. It should be heard within two years,” he said.
KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 – The Catholic Church won the constitutional right to print the word “Allah” in its newspaper seven months ago but a government application to stay the ruling could delay its use for a while longer.
The Court of Appeal has yet to indicate when it is taking any step to move the case along but retired jurists say it can’t take very long while a lawyer said it could take up to two years to get a hearing.
Appellate and trial division chief from the Attorney-General’s Chambers Datuk Kamaludin Md Said has confirmed that the Court of Appeal has yet to set a hearing date for the appeal.
“Nothing yet, nothing yet, nothing yet,” the government lawyer sounded exasperated when asked about the court status.
Kamaludin is the senior federal counsel representing the home ministry in the “Allah” dispute where the High Court here ruled last December 31 that the Catholic Church has a constitutional right to publish the word “Allah” to refer to God outside the Islamic context.
The Home Ministry — which had imposed the word ban on The Herald two years ago — has got a stay against the judgment pending its appeal while the Church — noting the spate of attacks on houses of worship nationwide earlier this year — agreed not to challenge the stay application.
“We’ve already filed the record of appeal so it’s up to the court to fix the date,” he stressed repeatedly.
Lack of any action at the Palace of Justice is doing little to dispel the public suspicion at the prolonged stay order.
The Church refused to comment on whether it was taking any action to speed their case along.
Former High Court judge, Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah, told The Malaysian Insider he has not heard of an indefinite stay being granted during his time on the bench.
“I’ve not heard of an indefinite stay... In my experience, the courts are venues to give finality to disputes,” said the man who quit the judiciary 14 years ago, after his 33-page letter alleging several senior judges of being on the take leaked out to the public.
“But the laws may have changed since I left the court,” he added.
A former law practitioner suggested that an indefinite stay would amount to an injunction, which is against the practices of the court.
“Meaning the Church would be prohibited from using it,” said the retiree, requesting anonymity.
He explained that under normal circumstances, the party that is appealing a judgment could get a stay order, but the appellate court should also set a time frame for the next step to ensure fair play is given to both sides.
A stay is granted to provide time for the party to file further action, and the court has the right to decide on a reasonable amount of time it would take to prepare the necessary papers.
For the “Allah” appeal to have gone on for six months without any court proceeding taking place was “very unreasonable”.
“There must be a proceeding in court,” he stressed, even if the government were to tell the judges there were other similar cases pending in the High Court and it would be better to wait for them to be finalised there and then heard one-shot.
Bar Council vice-president Lim Chee Wee, agreed that an indefinite stay meant a permanent stay, but said such a thing existed.
“Yes, there is such a thing. Usually, it’s granted pending the winding up of a company facing insolvency. “It’s very rare outside of that,” he said.
But Lim noted that in the “Allah” dispute, the home ministry’s stay was the type “pending the outcome of an appeal” and admitted “there’s no fixed time for hearing”.
“It would depend on the court diary,” he added.
Other law experts confided that the Catholic Church’s only recourse would be administrative, based on the present circumstances.
One advised the counsel for the Church to write in to the Court of Appeal to remind the registry of the pending case.
Lim appeared optimistic that the appellate court would deal with the “Allah” dispute in due time.
“Our courts are quite efficient these days. It should be heard within two years,” he said.
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