Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar was forced to forfeit RM7,000 of his RM10,000 bail for failing to turn up at a hearing on time.

The drama unfolded on July 27 when Uthayakumar scheduled to face a sedition charge at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court, was instead at the High Court attempting get a date for a stay application.

He had filed an interim stay application at 8.45am but had to wait until around noon to obtain the hearing date.

In his absence, Sessions Court judge Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain issued a warrant of arrest.

NONE "Normally, the lower courts will wait for matters to be disposed off at the upper courts first, but this was not the case here," lamented Uthayakumar ( left ).

He was called to the stand at about 4.50pm to explain his absence before Ahmad Zamzani and to have his arrest warrant cancelled.

"He did not accept my explanation and apology. He then gave me the first and final warning for being late to court," he said.

Eventually, not only had Uthayakumar to forfeit part of his bail, the judge also raised it to RM15,000 and ordered him to appoint another bailor as well.

DPP Noorin Badaruddin said Uthayakumar should have informed the Sessions judge about his stay application.

"He was supposedly in the same court complex and failed to appear at the Sessions Court for his hearing," said Noorin.

Uthayakumar is charged under Section 4 (1) ©) of the Sedition Act 1948, a soon to be repealed law , for a letter dated Nov 15, 2007 to then British prime minister, Gordon Brown.

In the letter, he had alleged that Indians in Malaysia were being subject to "ethnic cleansing".

Uthayakumar is liable to a fine of RM5,000, a three-year jail term or both if found guilty.