(delivering the Judgment of the Court): The judgment which I am about to deliver is the joint judgment of the Chief Justice, Salleh Abas, F.J. Abdul Hamid, F.J. and myself.

This appeal arises out of the rejection by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of the petition of the plaintiff for permission to establish a private university, Merdeka University ("MU"), which rejection was held by the learned trial Judge to have been lawful. Background Of Events

The background is as follows.

The idea of founding MU was formed in 1967 through the initiative of certain Chinese guilds and associations under the leadership of the United Chinese School Committees' Association and the United Chinese School Teachers' Association ("the two Associations"). On April 14, 1968 at an inaugural meeting of Chinese guilds and associations from all over the country held at the Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur for the proposed university, a Proclamation was passed and approved together with a draft Plan for MU dated April 10, 1968 and issued by the Educational Committee of the two Associations. Mr. Lim Fong Seng, the Chairman of the plaintiff company, stated in his evidence that the Proclamat