The Ipoh High Court today struck out, on technical grounds, a habeas corpus application by Hindraf leader M Manoharan who is detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Justice Muhamad Ideres Muhamad Rapee struck out the application because the copy of the detention order submitted by Manoharan’s counsel and DAP chairperson Karpal Singh, had not been certified.

Manoharan, 46, was among five Hindraf leaders detained under the ISA last Thursday on grounds of national security. The four others are P Uthayakumar, R Kenghadharan, V Ganabatirau and T Vasantha Kumar.

Karpal filed the application on Friday, in less than 24 hours after the arrests, on behalf of Manoharan’s wife S Puspaneela, 47.

Fresh applications for Manoharan and Ganabatirau - both of whom are DAP members - were filed today at the Kuala Lumpur High Court at 4.30pm.

In both applications, Karpal argued that Manoharan and Ganabatirau’s detention were null and void because it was unconstitutional and had inherent procedural impropriety.

He filed the applications on behalf of Manoharan's wife and Ganabathirau's younger brother, V Papparaidu, 33.

They named the Internal Security Minister as first respondent and the Taiping Detention Camp Superitendent as the second respondent.

In their affidavits they stated that the purported grounds of detention were groundless and are seeking a court order to declare the arrests illegal and unlawful and the detention orders, null and void.

Together with the applications, Karpal filed a certificate of urgency for the matter to be heard as soon as possible.

The court will hear their applications on Dec 26.

Fine tuning

Meanwhile, three other DAP lawyers met the five detainees today at the Kamunting Detention Centre to “fine tune” the remaining three’s habeas corpus applications.

“The court documents are ready, but there are a few more things we need to clarify with our clients,” lawyer A Sivanesan who is assisting Karpal in all five cases.

He said the habeas corpus applications for the Uthayakumar and Vasantha Kumar would be filed on Friday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, while Kenghadharan’s application would be filed on Monday.

Three other lawyers involved in the habeas corpus who would be assisting Karpal in the hearings are Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, Ram Singh and Gobind Singh Deo.

Habeas corpus is a writ ordering prisoners to be brought before a court or judge to ascertain if there are any procedural defects which could render their detention unlawful.

In a related development, DAP would be having a fund raiser for the family of the five detainees at the St Johns Ambulance hall in Ipoh tomorrow morning.