The Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the government today, overturning a previous High Court decision that supported 50 retired Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) personnel in a pension adjustment dispute.
The three-member panel, chaired by Justice Datuk Hashim Hamzah, found that the military personnel failed to prove that the Malaysian Government, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the Malaysian Armed Forces Council had breached provisions under the Federal Constitution.
Justice Hashim stated that the defendants cannot be said to be breaching Article 147 of the Federal Constitution as they have not placed the plaintiffs in a less favorable position.
The court allowed the appeal without making any orders regarding legal costs. Justice Datuk Wong Kian Kheong, in a supporting judgment, noted that two documents from 2013 were not salary adjustments but amendments to the terms of service for serving MAF members. He clarified that the objective was to improve the salary scheme for those in service, not to discriminate against retirees who left before January 1, 2013.
The court rules in favor of the government
Wong also emphasized that there was no unequal treatment between pensioners who retired before January 1, 2013, and those who retired afterward, as no pension adjustments were made for retirees post-January 1, 2013. On February 5 of the previous year, the High Court had ruled that all military personnel who retired before January 1, 2013, were entitled to have their pensions adjusted to the rates and methods applied to those who retired after that date.
The 50 retired military personnel, of varying ranks, had filed an originating summons in the High Court on November 17, 2022. They sought a declaration that the government had violated constitutional provisions by failing to implement new pension adjustments for retirees who left before January 1, 2013. Federal Counsel M.
Kogilambigai represented the government, while lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla appeared on behalf of the retired personnel. Haniff Khatri told reporters that he would study the court’s grounds of judgment before deciding whether to escalate the matter to the Federal Court.