Yang Arif Datuk Syed Ahmad Helmy
Art Harun
Remember him, anybody?
He was the brave, honest and conscientious High Court Judge at the Shah Alam High Court who heard our application for habeas corpus or the release of Raja Petra Kamarudin last year.
Many of you would remember that he created history by ordering the release of RPK from his ISA detention.
In a landmark case, he changed the law on the ISA. He was the first to hold that even though the ISA prohibits the Court from questioning the reason proffered by the Home Minister in detaining a person under the ISA – in short the Home Minister may do anything he likes under the ISA – the Court could still look into whether the Home Minister had committed a "jurisdictional error" in exercising his powers as such.
By so ruling, Yang Arif Datuk Syed Ahmad Helmy changed the law. Effectively, it is now the law that the Court may look into whether the Home Minister had correctly invoked his powers under the ISA.
It was a brave and brilliant decision which distinguish many other decisions made before, even by higher Courts.
