After seven adjournments, the Kuala Lumpur High Court today fixed Feb 6 next year to decide on a crucial application by a former student who is challenging the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA).

The decision will determine whether former Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) student Soh Sook Hwa can proceed with her case to seek the court to declare several UUCA provisions as unconstitutional.

Justice Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim fixed the date to decide on Soh's application for an extension of time after a brief meeting with the counsels representing both parties in chambers this morning.

"The judge wants some time to consider (the submissions from both parties) because the decision will have an impact on (the procedure of) future judicial reviews," Soh's lawyer Ang Hean Leng told reporters later.

Soh, 24, challenged the university act in October last year after being punished by USM for her alleged involvement in the 2004 general election to campaign for an opposition candidate.

Technical grounds

It is learnt that senior federal counsel Azizah Nawawi who is representing the sole respondent - the higher education minister - cited two main procedural grounds to strike out Soh's application.

The ministry had argued against Soh's main application for a judicial review on a technical ground - that she had filed it after the 40-day time frame since receiving the ministry's letter rejecting her appeal against the penalties imposed by USM.

Although the time frame is stipulated in the university act, Soh argued that she only learnt of the ministry's decision much later as she was abroad and that the letter was not sent to her hometown address.

She then filed an application to ask for an extension of the 40-day time frame on the ground that her action against the ministry involves public interest.

Soh, who is now working in Penang as a marketing executive, showed up in court this morning with some 20 student activists.

Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad held a watching brief for the Bar Council.

Fist case

This is the first case challenging the legality of the UUCA, which bars academicians and students from being involved in politics, among other activities, without prior permission from the campus authorities.

Soh is seeking a review of the ministry's decision to reject her appeal against the penalties imposed by the USM disciplinary board.

She is also seeking a declaration that Section 15 of the UUCA - which bars students from being affiliated with political parties or associations - and several provisions in the USM regulations as unconstitutional.

In December 2004, USM found Soh guilty of breaching Section 15 of the UUCA. A photograph of her clad in a T-shirt bearing an opposition party logo had appeared in a vernacular paper earlier.

The university then accused her of campaigning for Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidate Tian Chua in the Batu parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur. She was found guilty, fined RM200 and issued a stern warning.

The former student representative was a final-semester journalism undergraduate at the time. She was also the former president of the USM Chinese Language Society.