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The Court of Appeal (CA) has allowed the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) to withdraw its appeal against the application by Hougang resident Vellama Marie Muthu seeking the Court to declare that the Prime Minister does not have "unfettered discretion" in deciding whether and when to call by-elections.
The High Court will now hear the case on a date to be decided.
In a hearing that lasted half an hour on Wednesday morning, senior counsel David Chong, acting for the AGC, said the withdrawal was because the AGC felt there is no substratum in the case brought by Vellama now since the Prime Minister has called a by-election in the Hougang constituency.
In short, he argued that there is no case to be heard and thus the AGC is withdrawing its appeal against Justice Pillai's decision in March for the case to be heard in open court.
The AGC's appeal was also objected to by M Ravi, lawyer for Vellama, who had filed an application to strike out the AGC's appeal. M Ravi said the AGC's submission of its appeal contravened the rules of court which required the AGC to seek leave from Justice Pillai. The AGC had not done so before making the appeal to the CA.
Read the full report by Andrew Loh written for Yahoo Singapore here.
Andrew's passion are social and political issues. His writings have been reproduced in other publications, including the Australian Housing Journal in 2010. Andrew also writes weekly for Yahoo Singapore which nominated him as one of Singapore's most influential media persons in 2011 and cited him for having "pioneered a new form of journalism in Singapore - the kind that dared to speak truth to power."
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