Malaysia’s Federal Court upholds constitutional right of vernacular schools to teach in Chinese, Tamil

A three-member Federal Court bench chaired by Judges Mary Lim Thiam Suan denied a leave to appeal by the Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim) and the Coalition of National Writers’ Association (Gapena), reported Sin Chew Daily.

Justice Lim and Justice Rhodzariah Bujang dismissed the application of both petitioners, while Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil dissented.

This meant that the Court of Appeal’s decision on November 23, 2023, which ruled that vernacular schools in the country were constitutional, stands.

In delivering the majority decision, Justice Lim said that the court found that Mappim and Gapena failed to meet the requirements under Section 96(a) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 to be granted leave to appeal on constitutional matters amended by the petitioners.

“Therefore, the application for leave to appeal is dismissed with no costs,” she said.

Before this, the two NGOs, through their lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, submitted eight questions, consisting of six constitutional and two legal questions. However, the questions were later amended, and only one constitutional question was presented to the court.

The constitutional question was whether the medium of instruction in the teaching and learning process in national-type Chinese and Tamil schools, established under Sections 2, 17, and 28 of the Education Act 1996 (Act 550), is an official matter and subject to the obligation under Article 152(1) of the Federal Constitution, which mandates the use of the national language for all official matters.

On December 29, 2021, High Court judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali (now Court of Appeal judge) dismissed the lawsuits brought by GPMS, Mappim, Gapena and Isma. GPMS did not file the appeal to the