PUTRAJAYA, March 27 ― The Selangor government’s bid for a judicial review over the content of the redelineation exercise by the Election Commission (EC) is an academic matter, the Court of Appeal was told today.

Senior Federal Counsel Datuk Amarjeet Singh argued that the redelineation proposal submitted to the Prime Minister to be tabled at Parliament differs from the EC’s original recommendation.

"After the first round of objections during local enquiries (after the preliminary recommendations), the EC heard a second round of local enquiries. After that a report containing the final recommendations was prepared.

"I don’t know what they are at the moment. We are arguing the (EC’s) recommendation at the preliminary stage but right now what will be tabled is something else in Parliament. So now, the report is in the hands of the body that is going to make the decision,” said Amarjeet.

He then explained to a panel of judges consisting of Datuk Asmadi Asnawi, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil that the EC is not a decision-making body and its recommended proposals are not legally binding.

He also gave an example that originally, out of the 22 parliamentary constituencies in Selangor, 18 constituencies had its boundaries altered prior to the first round of local enquiries. After the local enquiries, only 15 parliamentary constituencies had its boundaries changed.

However, Selangor state counsels Datuk Cyrus Das, Derek Fernandez and Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan argued that it is not an academic matter, seeing that acts passed in Parliament can still be challenged via judicial reviews.

"In our view it isn’t academic. We are talking about the process. If the initial process is problematic then it carries all the way through the end.

"I think we made it clear in the submission that even Acts of Parliament that has been passed, can still be challenged,” Ambiga told reporters at the outskirts of the hearing.

Das added that the Selangor state government has taken position that it has posed legal questions for the court to determine whether the EC complied with the 13th Schedule (Provisions relating to delimitation of Constituencies) and Article 113 (Conduct of Elections) of the Federal Constitution.

"We argued between what Parliament can decide and what matter is suitable for the court to decide. Any question of law or legality of any action or decision or constitutionality of it is a matter for the courts.

"That is the position taken by the Selangor state government and therefore the recommendations made by the EC are open to judicial review and subject to judicial process,” said Das.

Lead judge Ahmadi then said that the decision will be made this Thursday, March 29 at 9.00am as the trio need to go through all the evidence submitted.