Malik speaking to reporters after the hearing on Wednesday. – Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING: The Court of Appeal has today allowed Petroliam Nasional Berhad’s (Petronas) appeal to stay the hearing of the Sarawak government’s suit to recover unpaid State Sales Tax (SST) from the corporation.
The panel consisting of Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan, Nantha Balan E.S. Moorthy and Datuk Supang Lian ruled that Petronas has merit and special circumstances for the stay pending its appeal on Judicial Commissioner Christopher Chin’s recusal.
Petronas’ lawyer Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar explained to reporters later that the corporation had filed an appeal against Chin’s decision on January 23 to dismiss its application to recuse him from presiding over the case.
He said the hearing of the appeal will be held on March 6.
“So we then applied to the Court of Appeal (for the stay) and that was the hearing this morning, and the Court of Appeal has agreed with us and stayed all proceedings,” he said.
Chin had ruled that Petronas’ application to recuse him was an affront to the judiciary, and was frivolous and without merit.
The state was represented by state legal counsel Dato Sri JC Fong and a legal team from the State Attorney-General’s Chambers at the Court of Appeal proceeding this morning.
The Sarawak government and the Comptroller of the SST had filed the suit against Petronas to recover more than RM1.3 billion in SST owed to the state.
The hearing is scheduled to be held at the High Court here on March 13.
Also in the morning of March 13, High Court Judge Azhahari Kamal Ramli will rule on Petronas judicial review application on the state’s power to impose SST.