Disputed Undang abandon case to depose Negeri Sembilan Yamtuan, cannot refile lawsuit

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Four Undangs or traditional ruling chiefs of Negeri Sembilan — including three disputed ones — today dropped their court attempt in Kuala Lumpur to ultimately remove Yang di-Pertuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as the Negeri Sembilan ruler.

Today, the four men — Datuk Mubarak Thahak, Datuk Maarof Mat Rashad, Datuk Muhammed Abdullah and Datuk Abdul Rahim Yasin — applied to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to withdraw their court case against the Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar and the Negeri Sembilan state government.

In their court case filed in July via judicial review, the four men had wanted the court to order the Menteri Besar to sign their April 19 declaration to “sack” Tuanku Muhriz as Negeri Sembilan ruler within seven days of the court order.

They had also wanted the court to declare that the April 19 declaration is a valid document according to the Negeri Sembilan state constitution.

But after the four men applied to drop the case, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today also decided that the dropped case cannot be filed again.

When contacted, lawyer Steven Thiru confirmed to Malay Mail that the four purported Undangs had dropped the case in the Kuala Lumpur courts, but said they did not give any reason to the court for the case withdrawal.

Steven was representing the Negeri Sembilan Dewan Keadilan dan Undang (DKU) and the DKU secretary, two of the proposed interveners to the case.

There were four proposed interveners or four parties who were applying to join the court case, namely the DKU, DKU secretary, the current Sungei Ujong Undang Datuk Muhammad Faris Johari and current Rembau Undang Datuk Hassan Ab. Hamid.

In explaining what happened in open court today before High Court judge Norliza Othman, Steven said the four purported Undangs had asked to withdraw the court case with no order on legal costs, while the Attorney-General’s Chambers had agreed to the withdrawal with no order as to costs.

Steven said that the four proposed interveners did not object to the withdrawal, but had asked the court to give order on costs, as the withdrawal of the judicial review would mean that the case had no merits.

“Importantly, the judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court was an abuse of process,” he told Malay Mail.

Steven said the four men’s court case was an abuse of court process, as they did not disclose these key facts to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur: that there was a pending court proceeding in the High Court in Seremban that they had already started with two other individuals, as well as the High Court in Seremban’s June 5 injunction order and July 8 order for leave for contempt of court which the DKU and DKU secretary had obtained.

Steven said the four men’s act of filing a court case in Kuala Lumpur on July 17 when they already had an ongoing case in Seremban amounted to “forum shopping”.

“Forum shopping” is known as the act of shopping around or looking for a court which would most likely decide in their favour.

“This was a clear case of forum shopping, as well as suppression of material facts from the Kuala Lumpur High Court in the judicial review which was filed on July 17, 2026,” he said.

Steven said the High Court today ultimately ordered the four men to pay RM40,000 in costs, namely RM10,000 to each of the four proposed interveners.

He also confirmed that the High Court decided that the four have no liberty to file afresh or cannot file the same court case again.

On August 1, the DKU announced that these three individuals — Mubarak, Abdul Rahim, and Maarof — had either ceased to hold or never lawfully held the positions of Undang for Sungei Ujong, Rembau and Jelebu.

The four men in today’s court are those three individuals, as well as Muhammed who is currently listed as the Johol Undang on the Negeri Sembilan state government’s website.

On August 1, the DKU formally recognised Muhammad Faris and Raja Hassan as the Undang for Sungei Ujong and Rembau, and said Maarof had been dismissed as Jelebu Undang.

The Negeri Sembilan state government’s website currently lists the Jelebu Undang position as vacant.