PUTRAJAYA — The Court of Appeal today allowed the appeal by the government and three others to overturn a High Court ruling that had previously favoured 50 retired Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) personnel in a pension adjustment dispute.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Hashim Hamzah ruled that the military personnel failed to prove that the Malaysian Government, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the Malaysian Armed Forces Council had breached provisions under the Federal Constitution.
“We find there is merit in the defendants’ appeal that warranted appellate intervention,” said Hashim, who sat with Justices Datuk Wong Kian Kheong and Datuk Ismail Brahim.
The judge said the defendants could not be said to have breached Article 147 of the Federal Constitution as they had not placed the plaintiffs in a less favourable position.
The court allowed the appeal with no order as to legal costs.
Wong, who wrote a supporting judgment, said two documents—Garis Panduan Pelaksanaan Pindaan Syarat-Syarat Perkhidmatan ATM dated January 17, 2013, and Surat Pelaksanaan Kesetaraan Pangkat dan Penambahbaikan Jadual Gaji Minimum Maksimum bagi Perkhidmatan ATM di bawah SSM dated March 14, 2013—were not salary adjustments but amendments to the terms of service for serving members of the MAF.
He said the objective was to improve the salary scheme for serving members, not to discriminate against retirees from before January 1, 2013.
Wong also said there was no unequal treatment between pensioners who retired before January 1 and those who retired after January 1, 2013, as pension adjustments were not made for retirees after January 1 that year.
On February 5 last year, the High Court ruled that all military personnel who retired before January 1, 2013, were entitled to have their pensions adjusted to the rates and methods applied to retirees who left service after that date.
The 50 military personnel of various ranks filed an originating summons in the High Court on November 17, 2022, seeking a declaration that the government had violated provisions in the Federal Constitution, read together with Section 187 of the MAF Act 1972, for its failure to implement new pension adjustments for MAF retirees from before January 1, 2013.
They claimed the government’s failure to implement the pension adjustments had caused a significant pension gap between MAF retirees from before January 1 and those who retired after January 1, 2013.
In today’s proceedings, Federal Counsel M. Kogilambigai appeared for the government, while lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla represented the retired personnel.
After the court proceeding, Haniff Khatri told reporters he would study the court’s grounds of judgment before deciding whether to bring the matter to the Federal Court. — June 4, 2025
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