KELAB PEMBINA-PEMBINA SELANGOR (SELANGOR BUILDERS' CLUB) v 1. ) Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) 2. ) Jabatan Peguam Negara

Case Significance

Confirms that where the Stamp Act 1949 provides a complete code of objection and appeal with fixed timelines, a taxpayer must exhaust those remedies, and leave for judicial review will be refused where a time-barred applicant, professionally represented, failed to use the statutory appeal.

This High Court decision in the Special Powers Division at Kuala Lumpur concerns an application by a registered society for leave to commence judicial review against the Inland Revenue Board. The applicant sought an order of certiorari to quash the Board's decision rejecting its appeal against an adjudication notice, and an order of mandamus to compel the refund of ad valorem stamp duty of RM94,400 and the substitution of nominal duty of RM10 under Item 32(e) of the First Schedule to the Stamp Act 1949 in respect of a transfer of ownership. The Attorney General appeared to object to the grant of leave. The central issues were whether the applicant's objections to the assessment were statutorily time-barred and whether the applicant had failed to exhaust the domestic remedies prescribed by the Stamp Act 1949. The Court noted that, following the rejection of its objection by the Board's letter, the applicant had a right to appeal to the High Court within 21 days under section 39, but had not done so, and that its plea of ignorance of the statutory timelines under sections 38A(2) and 39(1) was unsustainable given that it had been professionally represented throughout the material period. Distinguishing the authority the applicant relied on, which concerned the right of appeal to the Special Commissioners under section 99 of the Income Tax Act 1967, the Court observed that no comparable authority supported bypassing the Stamp Act's own code of remedies. Holding that where Parliament has prescribed a complete code of remedies with specific timelines those remedies must be followed, the Court accepted the Attorney General's objections and dismissed the application for leave. The reasoning underscores that judicial review is a remedy of last resort in revenue matters: where a statute lays down its own objection-and-appeal machinery with mandatory timelines, a party that lets those timelines lapse cannot ordinarily convert its lost statutory appeal into an application for certiorari and mandamus, and a professionally advised applicant is fixed with knowledge of the deadlines it failed to meet.