Federal Court throws out suit questioning constitutionality of vernacular schools

By admin-s On Nov 11, 2019

The Federal Court has thrown out the case of a lawyer who sought to ask if the existence of vernacular schools was unconstitutional.

(The Star) – Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed (pic) dismissed Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz’s leave application, on grounds that it was within Parliament’s power to form such schools.

Mohd Khairul’s challenge was whether Parliament had the authority to pass an amendment to Sections 17 and 28 of the Education Act 1996, which was on matters of language.

He argued that since Chinese and Tamil national-type schools used their own language as the medium of instruction, it went against Article 152(1), which states that the national language shall be the Malay language

However, the Chief Judge ruled that Parliament has clear power under the terms of education and matters auxiliary to it, such as the language used as the medium of instruction.

As Mohd Khairul had sought to challenge the competency of the Parliament to pass laws, he needed to obtain leave from a single Federal Court judge under Article 4(4) of the Federal Constitution.

With the case starting in Federal Court, his failure to obtain leave meant there is no further avenue for the case to proceed.