PUTRAJAYA, Oct 31 — The Court of Appeal today upheld a High Court decision which overturned the University of Malaya’s (UM) disciplinary action against five of its former students for their involvement in a talk featuring Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Oct 2014.
A three-man bench comprising Justices Datuk David Wong Dak Wah, Datuk Yaacob Md Sam and Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof unanimously dismissed the appeal brought by UM students’ disciplinary committee, its appeal committee, its board of directors, its treasurer and the university with cost which was set at RM2,000.
Justice Wong who chaired the panel held that there was no appealable error made by the High Court judge.
He made the decision after hearing the submission from Mubashir Mansor representing UM, adding the court need not necessarily hear the submission from New Sin Yew who represented the students.
On July 29, 2016, the Shah Alam High Court allowed a judicial review filed by the former students of the university against the disciplinary committee that found them guilty on disciplinary charges and imposed punishment of either suspension, fine or issue a stern warning.
The students — former Persatuan Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya (PMUM) president Fahmi Zainol and his then-committee members Safwan Shamsuddin, Adam Fistival Wilfrid, Haw Yu Hong and Khairol Najib Hashim — graduated last year and this year respectively.
The university had suspended Fahmi for two semesters and fined him RM600, Safwan was suspended for one semester and fined RM300, Adam and Haw were each fined RM150 and Khairol was reprimanded.
The five took the matter to the High Court for a judicial review against the board’s decision.
The High Court in allowing their judicial review application to quash the board’s decision had ruled that the disciplinary proceedings were not conducted in accordance with the UM disciplinary rules (Kaedah-Kaedah Universiti Malaya Tatatertib Pelajar-Pelajar 1997).
Outside the court, after the court’s decision, Mubashir told reporters that he would seek instructions from his clients on whether to bring the matter to the Federal Court. — Bernama
