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KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- The High Court was told here Wednesday that the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the V. K. Lingam video clip were not reviewable.

It was because the commission was merely performing the statutory functions tasked upon it, namely to inquire in the matters covered in the terms of reference, said Senior Federal Counsel Azizah Nawawi.

She said the commission came up with findings and recommendations and it did not have the power to make any binding or conclusive decision on the subject matter.

She was submitting on behalf of the Attorney-General's Chambers to object the application by five individuals for leave to seek a judicial review of the inquiry findings.

The applicants were lawyer Datuk V. K. Lingam, tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and two former chief justices Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin.

They wanted certain parts of the commission's report which implicated them deleted.

Azizah said that according Rule 2(4) of the High Court Rules 1980, the applicants must show they had been adversely affected by the decision of a public authority to have the review of the decision heard.

The inquiry commission, however, did not make decisions but findings and recommendations, she said.

She also said that three applicants, namely Tengku Adnan, Eusoff and Fairuz, had named members of the commission as respondents and this was not supposed to be the case because the report was not formulated by any individual commissioner but the product of an inquiry conducted under the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.

"Therefore, it is submitted that the said applications must be dismissed as the suits against the commissioners are prohibited by Section 21(1) of the Act and the court should refuse the application for leave with costs," she said.

The hearing before Justice Datuk Abdul Kadir Musa will continue on Aug 27.

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