Syed Saddiq’s constituency funds challenge on hold for settlement talks

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s legal challenge against the government’s withdrawal of constituency funds from elected representatives has been adjourned to allow parties to explore an amicable settlement.

Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly told a three-member Federal Court bench he had received instructions from Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar to put the proceedings on hold pending efforts to resolve the dispute out of court.

“Parties need time to work on the mechanism for the settlement,” he said.

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Azizah Nawawi, who chaired the bench, fixed Dec 7 for parties to update the court on the progress of the proposed settlement.

The panel also included Justices Nazlan Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

Lawyer Lim Wei Jiet, who appeared for Syed Saddiq, said his client was agreeable to the proposal.

On March 10, the Federal Court granted Syed Saddiq leave to appeal a Court of Appeal decision upholding the refusal to allow him to commence judicial review proceedings over the withdrawal of constituency allocations.

The appeal raises three questions of law, including whether the denial or withdrawal of constituency funds by the government is amenable to judicial review and whether such action violates the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution.

The apex court will also decide whether the challenge was filed outside the three-month limitation period applicable to judicial review proceedings.

On Oct 27, 2025, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision refusing leave for judicial review, ruling that the application was filed out of time.

A three-member panel led by Justice Hashim Hamzah, now chief judge of Malaya, unanimously agreed with the government’s argument that the deadline to challenge its decision expired on Dec 10, 2023.

On Dec 24, 2024, then High Court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, now chief justice, ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the application because it was filed outside the prescribed period.

Syed Saddiq and three Muar voters – Najib Abu Nawar, Bakirudin Abdullah and Fadzly Bisri – filed the judicial review on April 23, 2024, naming the prime minister and the government as respondents.

They sought to challenge the withholding of RM500,000 from a RM1.7 million allocation for the Muar parliamentary service centre, intended for welfare, community and disaster relief programmes.

They also sought to restore Syed Saddiq’s access to the MyKHAS system, which manages a RM2 million constituency development fund, and reverse the cancellation of approved projects worth RM230,300.

The application further challenged the government’s refusal to provide funds for his 2024 programmes under Projek Mesra Rakyat and other similar initiatives.

Joshua Wu and Nevyn Vinosh Venudran also appeared for Syed Saddiq, while senior federal counsel Nurhafizza Azizan and federal counsel Ng Wee Li and Ahmad Ilham Haridz Padli represented the respondents.

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