KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 —The Federal Court has sped up the government’s appeal against a landmark ruling that public assemblies could not be criminalised, lawyers claimed today.

On April 25, the Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that it was unconstitutional to make spontaneous public assemblies unlawful for a mere breach of the 10-day notice required under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012, and also acquitted Selangor deputy speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad of a charge under the same law.

Today, Nik Nazmi’s legal team claimed that the Federal Court had informed them yesterday that it will hear the government’s appeal in less than seven days’ working time.

They pointed out that this was despite the Federal Court skipping a case management session and failing to provide them with a “crucial” court document in a case of “great public importance and interest”.

“At about 3pm on Friday 16th May 2014, we received a call from the Deputy Registrar of the Federal Court informing us that the appeal was fixed for hearing on Tuesday 27th May 2014. Earlier, it had only been fixed for mention on 27th May.

“We were informed by the Deputy Registrar that this was being done on the instructions of the Chief Justice,” his lawyers N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya wrote in a joint statement today.

The sudden and abrupt change yesterday now leaves the legal team “only six working days” to prepare for the appeal hearing on May 27.

“It should be noted that the appeal will involve lengthy and novel arguments on important constitutional matters relating to the rakyat’s fundamental liberties,” they said.

Describing this turn of events as “surprising”, Surendran and Latheefa pointed said  the courts had decided to fix May 27 for the hearing date although it had yet to provide them with the government’s Petition of Appeal.

The Petition of Appeal is a “crucial” court document containing the government’s grounds for the appeal, they said.

The Federal Court has also instructed them to file in written submissions by next Tuesday, which amounts to only “one working day” for them to prepare the legal documents, they said.

The lawyers also alleged that the Federal Court had not fixed any dates for case mention or case management, adding that the country’s supreme court had not checked with them for their availability.

In typical court proceedings, lawyers from both sides have to attend case management sessions before a judge, before trial or hearing for a case starts.