[UPDATED] Mandarin, Tamil use in vernacular schools constitutional, rules Federal Court 

KUALA LUMPUR – Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools remain constitutional, the Federal Court has ruled in deciding whether to grant leave to two non-governmental organisations seeking to challenge the Court of Appeal’s earlier decision on the schools’ validity. 

Today’s decision by the apex court’s three-member bench, however, was a split 2-1 ruling, with two judges refusing to grant the NGOs leave to commence their challenge, while one judge was for allowing the groups to appeal.

The two groups are the Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim) and the Confederation of National Writers’ Association (Gapena), which appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision last November that it is constitutional for vernacular schools to use Mandarin or Tamil as their medium of instruction.

The federal judges who were against granting them leave to appeal were Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang, while Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil was the dissenting judge, Bernama reports.

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 that had been amended by the petitioners.

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

With this, all three levels of the judiciary have found that vernacular schools are constitutional. 

The appellate court in November dismissed appeals brought by Mappim, Gapena, Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Ikatan Guru-Guru Muslim Malaysia (I-Guru) in its verdict that vernacular schools are not public authorities and therefore the use of Tamil or Mandarin as the mediums of instruction in these schools is not prohibited. 

Isma and I-Guru later opted out of filing for leave with the Federal Court to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision.

The four groups plus the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS) filed the original suit in 2019 seeking to declare vernacular schools as unconstitutional. They named several parties including the Malaysian government, Chinese education associations Dong Zong and Jiao Zong, Persatuan Thamizhar Malaysia and Persatuan Tamilar Thurunal (Perak) as defendants. 

GPMS did not join in the subsequent appeal to the Court of Appeal after the Kuala Lumpur High Court in December 2021 ruled vernacular schools as constitutional.

The high court judge then, Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, now a Court of Appeal judge, had dismissed the suit on the grounds that the existence of vernacular school does not violate Article 152(1) of the Federal Constitution, and that vernacular schools are not defined as public authorities, and the use of non-Malay languages as mediums of instruction in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools is not for official purposes. – February 20, 2024