KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — The High Court has struck out a civil suit filed by former executive deputy chairman of Malaysian Merchant Marine Berhad (MMM) Datuk Ramesh Rajaratnam challenging the validity of Malaysia’s insider trading law.
The suit was filed against the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and the Government of Malaysia.
According to a statement issued by the SC today, Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh, who made the ruling, held that Ramesh's originating summons were an abuse of court process and thus awarded costs of RM5,000 to the SC and the government of Malaysia, respectively.
On September 10 last year, Ramesh commenced a civil suit seeking a declaration that Section 188(2)(a) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) was contrary to Articles 5(1), 8(1) and (2), 10(1)(a) and 13 of the Federal Constitution and therefore null, void, and of no effect immediately.
On October 8, the SC applied to strike out the civil suit on the grounds that it was barred by res judicata, amounted to an abuse of process, and was a collateral attack upon Ramesh’s criminal conviction by the Sessions Court and his ongoing criminal appeal before the High Court.
Ramesh was charged at the Sessions Court on April 29, 2015, with three counts of insider trading under section 188(2)(a) of the CMSA. Following a full trial, he was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a fine of RM3 million for each charge.
Upon an appeal to the High Court, his conviction and sentence on all three charges were set aside on the grounds of judicial copying by the trial judge.
The Court of Appeal subsequently reinstated Ramesh's conviction and sentence for the first charge upon the public prosecutor’s appeal and remitted the case to the High Court for a hearing on its merits.
The appeal hearing on merits is pending before the High Court.
— Bernama
