Friday, July 5, 2013

“Adversely affected” parties have a right to water privatisation documents, court told

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and 13 others are not "busy-bodies" in demanding for documents on the water privatisation from the government, lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar told the Federal Court, adding that his clients were "adversely affected" parties by the refusal to disclose the information.
"They want the Federal Government to reveal the documents on the grounds of public interest," Malik said in his submission before a five-man bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria.
Malik said his clients, who filed a judicial review application in 2007, were adversely affected as the change in legal position from 2000 favoured them.
He cited that former parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang failed in 1987 to obtain a number of reliefs and an injunction to stop the government from awarding a contract for the privatisation of the North-South Expressway project, based on an old law .