KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will renew his application for judicial review of the contract extensions of a former chief justice and appellate court president, after the Federal Court declined to hear a similar challenge last month.

The Malaysiakini news portal reported the PM’s personal lawyer, Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla, as confirming the appeal, with the hearing set for January 14.

Dr Mahathir previously sued to contest the constitutionality of the previous government’s move to extend the tenures of Tun Md Raus Sharif as the chief justice and Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin as the president of the Court of Appeal.

The Malaysian Bar had also launched a similar challenge, which the Federal Court declined to hear last month after deciding the matter to be "academic” as both men have since resigned.

Dr Mahathir’s application was rejected by the High Court last November.

Both Dr Mahathir and the Bar’s previously unsuccessful bids were predicated on constitutional articles that set a hard limit of 66 years of age for serving judges and their disagreement with the previous government’s circumvention of this by appointing Raus and Zulkefli as additional judges.

* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.