PKR vice-president Tian Chua today withdrew his appeal to challenge his disqualification from contesting the Batu parliamentary seat in the 14th General Election. — Picture by Azneal Ishak

PUTRAJAYA, July 16 — PKR vice-president Tian Chua today withdrew his appeal to challenge his disqualification from contesting the Batu parliamentary seat in the 14th General Election (GE14).

Court of Appeal three-man bench, comprising Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, Puan Sri Zaleha Yusof and Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, struck out the appeal with no orders as to costs.

Tian Chua’s lawyer Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar told reporters that they wanted to start afresh after the court rejected their request for an amendment to a section in his client’s originating summons to remove the word “GE14”.

He said a fresh application would be filed at the High Court to clarify on Tian Chua’s legal status on whether he would be eligible to contest in future general elections or by-elections.

“We are not challenging the outcome of the GE14 but we want the status of my client to be clarified in the light of two High Court cases and a Supreme Court case as well as the stand by former speaker of the Dewan Rakyat who said that Tian Chua was not disqualified despite he was fined RM2,000 by the court,” he said.

Gurdial Singh said he would also write to seek clarification from the Election Commission (EC) on its stand regarding the three court rulings which stated that a person fined RM2,000 could contest in election.

On April 30, Tian Chua filed a suit against the EC and its Returning Officer Anwar Mohd Zai for disqualifying him as a candidate for the Batu parliamentary seat on nomination day (April 28) due to the RM2,000 fine imposed on him in a 2017 court case.

On May 4 this year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Tian Chua’s legal action which he had filed to challenge the EC’s decision to disqualify him from contesting the Batu parliamentary seat in GE14.

High Court Judge Datuk Nordin Hassan held the court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter or to determine the validity of the RO’s decision in rejecting Tian Chua’s nomination papers.

He had allowed the EC’s preliminary objection and found that Tian Chua’s matter was an election dispute and that he should filed by way of an election petition and not by an originating summons.

The RO rejected Tian Chua’s nomination papers on the basis of the RM2,000 fine imposed on him by the Shah Alam High Court on March 2 this year after allowing his appeal against a sentence for insulting the modesty of a police officer.

Tian Chua whose real name is Chua Tian Chang, 54, was fined RM3,000 by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court in 2014 for the offence.

Lawyer Alvin Julian represented the RO and the EC. — Bernama