Owners of comedy club withdraw challenge against purported DBKL blacklist as it does not exist

PETALING JAYA: The two owners of Crackhouse Comedy Club have decided to withdraw their legal challenge regarding an alleged blacklist issued by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) against them. The alleged blacklist prohibits the duo from registering any business in Kuala Lumpur for life. Lawyer Pravin Mahentharan, representing Mohamad Rizal Johan Van Geyzel and Shankar R Santhiram, informed the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday (Aug 23) morning that they discovered that DBKL had not imposed a blacklist on them. Instead, the club’s permit had been revoked.

The hearing for the judicial review regarding the alleged blacklist was scheduled for today, following a controversial stand-up routine that took place at the club in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, in the middle of last year. The routine involved comedian Siti Nuramira Abdullah, 26, who was charged with insulting Islam after admitting that she is Muslim and had memorized 15 juz of the Quran before removing her tudung and baju kurung on June 4 last year. She was fined RM8,000 for the incident.

In open court proceedings before Judge Amarjeet Singh, Pravin explained that they had spoken to DBKL in July and discovered that there was no blacklist, and that DBKL had only revoked Crackhouse Comedy Club’s permit. Amarjeet confirmed this with the legal representative for DBKL and its mayor. As a result, Amarjeet dismissed the judicial review and did not make any orders regarding costs.

Contrary to the statement made by then Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias on Aug 17 last year, claiming that DBKL had decided to “blacklist the owner of the club from registering a business license in Kuala Lumpur for life,” it was found that there was no such blacklist. After Jalaluddin’s statement, Mohamad Rizal and Shankar filed a judicial review application to challenge the ban on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

In addition to this, Mohamad Rizal was also charged with allegedly creating and distributing videos that touch on racial sensitivity through social media between July 4 and 6, 2022. On July 7 this year, Rizal pleaded guilty to one of the three charges under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and was fined RM8,000.