Petronas, the Sarawak government wants petitions related to oil and gas heard separately

PUTRAJAYA, 24 Sept: Petroliam National Bhd (Petronas) and the Sarawak State Government requested that their respective petitions challenging state and Federal laws relating to oil and gas be heard separately by the Federal Court.

The matter was reported to Judge Rhodzariah Bujang of the Federal Court at the indictment hearing, today.

Petronas Datuk's lawyer Dr Cyrus Das told the court that the Sarawak State Government had taken a stand to prevent the two petitions from merging.

However, he said the Sarawak State Government proposed that their case be heard first, followed by Petronas' petition.

Das said Petronas, however, wanted his petition heard first, according to the respective filing dates.

The lawyer said Petronas filed the petition on Jan. 10 and obtained permission under Article 4 (4) of the Federal Constitution on March 16, while the state government filed the petition on Feb. 23.

He said Petronas' challenge involves the laws of Sarawak state, while the Sarawak State Government petition involves Federal law.

"Unless there is a strong reason from Sarawak why they should be heard first, I think we follow the petition filing pattern", he said.

Meanwhile, the Sarawak government also wanted the Federal Court to decide in advance an initial issue concerning a colonial era order - the Order in Council (Border Amendment) of Sarawak 1954 - relating to the border between Sarawak and Sabah.

Judge Rhodzariah then appointed Oct. 1 for case management to determine the follow-up hearing of the petition, and matters relating to the issue of early opposition by the Sarawak State Government. The petition hearing is tentatively scheduled for late January next year.

On 16 March, the Federal Court granted permission to the country's oil and gas companies to initiate proceedings challenging the legislative capacity of Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) to pass certain laws and apply for a declaration of several laws passed by the DUN as invalid.

Petronas claimed that the Sarawak DUN has no ability to duplicate, modify, amend or review laws relating to matters under Schedule 1, Federal List, Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

Meanwhile, the state government filed a petition against the Malaysian and Petronas governments, requesting the Federal Court to determine constitutional validity and continued use of some federal acts in Sarawak.

The state government challenged three federal petroleum-related laws, namely the 1974 Petroleum Advancement Act, the Continental Divestment Act of 1966 and the 1966 Petroleum Mining Act.

In today's proceedings, besides Das, Petronas was also represented by Khoo Guan Huat, Datuk Azian Abd Aziz, Grace Teoh Wei Shan, Ahmad Faiz Razali, Khoo Yuan Ping and Alex Ngu, while the Sarawak State Government was represented by state Attorney General Mohd Adzrul Adzlan, Sarawak lawyer Richard Tie Sing Wan and Felicity Sharmela Thomas.

Federal Attorney General Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi and Federal Attorney Imtiyaz Wizni Aufa also represented the Federal Government.

In the meantime, Mohd Adzrul told reporters that the state government wanted the initial issue related to the 1954 Sarawak Order (Border Amendment) Council to be heard first as the state government believes the matter is not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Court. -TVS