Public interest on issues arising from the court dispute involving toll concessionaire Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd showed the importance of the case, the Federal Court heard today.

Metramac's counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said public interest deemed the case fit to be heard at the judiciary's apex level and urged the court to grant the company's application for leave to set aside the RM65 million judgment awarded to Fawziah Holdings.

Metramac was ordered to pay the sum to Fawziah Holdings for loss of advertising rights.

"No one can dispute that this case has attracted public attention. It is being debated almost everyday in the media and website including the Malaysian Bar website and malaysiakini," said the lawyer.

He said apart from considering arguments forwarded by the counsel, the court cannot afford to neglect public sentiments in making its consideration.

"The court cannot be blinded as to how the public sees the issue. It must take it into consideration, otherwise, it would be like an ivory tower," added Shafee.

Interim stay extended

After hearing his lengthy final argument, the court set May 15 to decide on whether to grant leave or not.

"We need more time to consider the issues. Counsel had submitted lengthy submissions which took several hours. Therefore it will be unfair for us to give a decision straight away, said Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim who chaired a five-member panel of judges which include federal court judges Pajan Singh Gill, Alauddin Mohd Sherif, Richard Malanjum and Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman.

The court also extended the interim stay it had set Monday exempting Metramac from complying to a Court of Appeal directive to set aside RM50 million in a joint account with Fawziah Holdings.

"The interim stay is granted until the court hears the applicant's (Metramac) application for a stay of execution on April 26," said justice Ahmad Fairuz.

The interim stay issued on April 3 recorded the company's undertaking not to remove or reduce the RM10.2 million deposited in its account.

The Metramac case attracted public attention when Justice Gopal Sri Ram - in his judgment - accused tycoon Halim Saad and his former business partner Anuar Othman of siphoning RM32.5 million from Metramac under the patronage of former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

Halim and Daim have since denied the allegations. They have been made official parties to the suit in a bid to expunge Gopal's remarks.

Natural justice breached

In his submissions, Shafee denied that his complaints of bias was "speculative and far-fetched" as claimed by counsel for Fawziah Holdings. He said there was a breach of natural justice when Gopal made the remarks in the judgment.

"It's not speculative on our part to say that the remarks showed a real danger of bias. The remarks were real because it happened.

"The argument that one out of the three judges (who heard the appeal at the Court of Appeal) could not have influence the other two judges and therefore do not show any danger of bias cannot be accepted," he said.

He said even if the remarks were made against non-parties of the dispute, it affected Metramac's chances of success.

"Biassed elements were tied up to the gross error in the finding," he argued.