Teacher Fails To Appeal Dismissal Over 4 Year Absence

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The Federal Court said there is no novel legal question of public importance in Yahaya Wahi’s application for leave to appeal.PUTRAJAYA: A primary school teacher failed to obtain leave from the Federal Court to pursue his appeal to overturn a Court of Appeal decision that held that his dismissal for being absent for 1,535 days was valid.
The three-member bench, comprising Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Zabariah Yusof and Rhodzariah Bujang, dismissed Yahaya Wahi’s application for leave to proceed with his appeal to the Federal Court.
Justice Abang Iskandar said Yahaya’s application for leave to appeal had failed to meet the threshold requirement of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
“There is no novel point. No question of general public importance needs to be further ventilated,” he said.
To make an appeal to the Federal Court, an applicant must obtain leave to proceed, and convince the court that the proposed appeal contains novel legal questions of public importance that are being raised for the first time and ought to be further ventilated by the court.
Yahaya, 44, was dismissed from the teaching service and had all his emoluments stopped on Aug 9, 2019, after the science and mathematics teacher failed to report himself at the school in Gerik, Perak, on the said date.
Transferred to SK RPS Kemar in the interior of Gerik on Dec 16, 2012, he had failed to report for duty, only doing so on April 3, 2013.
Subsequently, he did not teach at the school until May 16, 2017.
His failure to show up was due to his discovery that he had to reach the school by boat.
He could not make the trip due to his phobia of water, caused by a near-drowning incident during his childhood and the fatal drowning of his elder brother.
Yahaya had received medical attention at a government hospital in Sungai Petani and was referred to its psychiatry department in 2015.
He also informed the school principal of his medical condition when the latter initiated disciplinary action against him in 2019.
In his four years of absence, he tried to discuss his case with the authorities and requested another transfer, but his appeal fell on deaf ears.
He filed a judicial review application in the Taiping High Court seeking to quash his dismissal and be reinstated as a teacher at any other school reachable via a land route.
He named former Education Service Commission chairman Khair Yusof, the Hulu Perak district education office, the Perak education department, the education ministry and the government as respondents.
On July 31 last year, the High Court allowed Yahaya’s judicial review and granted a certiorari order to set aside the respondents’ decision to dismiss him from service.
The decision was however overturned by the Court of Appeal, which ruled that his termination from service was not illegal.
Lawyer Chan Kean Li appeared for Yahaya while senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi appeared for the respondents. - FMT

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