‘All Hong Kong lawmakers should retake oaths’: litigious former civil servant files legal bid to restart process

A former civil servant known for taking the Hong Kong government to court has applied for a fresh judicial review in a bid to restart the oath-taking process for all lawmakers in the Legislative Council.

Kwok Cheuk-kin said in an application filed to High Court on Monday that all oaths administered on October 12 last year should be declared invalid because the administrators, Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen and secretary general Kenneth Chen Wei-on, had misconducted themselves in the ceremony.

“The two have failed to adhere to the Basic Law and the law in reminding all persons taking the oath to abide by legal requirements,” Kwok said outside court.

“[Leung and Chen] did not even know the rules oath takers should follow, until there was an interpretation by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (China’s top legislative body) ... how can they exercise their duties?”

The latest application from the “king of judicial reviews” – as Kwok is known to many – came a month after the same court disqualified four more lawmakers for improper oaths. Last year, two localist lawmakers were also unseated in an unprecedented legal challenge brought about by the previous administration.