Crackhouse Comedy Club's owners drop request for judicial review of business license

Crackhouse Comedy Club’s owners, Mohamad Rizal Johan Van Geyzel and Shankar R Santhiram, have reportedly dropped their request to challenge Kuala Lumpur’s City Hall’s (DBKL) decision to revoke their business license and permanently ban them from running any new businesses.

The lawyer representing the owners, M. Pravin told High Court judge, Amarjeet Singh, that his clients no longer intended to pursue the judicial review application, according to Bernama.

The reason cited, reportedly, was that DBKL only revoked the license of the comedy club and did not impose a blacklist on the duo from registering their businesses in Kuala Lumpur. M. Pravin made these comments at the proceedings held yesterday during the hearing of the judicial review application.

Don't miss: Crackhouse Comedy Club owner makes a another attempt to rid cybercrime charges

The judge allowed the owners to revoke their judicial review application free of cost., Bernama said. 

The initial application for a judicial review happened in January this year, when they attempted to overturn their blacklisted status. They wanted the court to declare that their decision to restrict them from registering any businesses indefinitely in Kuala Lumpur was “unconstitutional and invalid”, therefore seeking compensation for the damages. 

In an attempt to get rid of the cybercrime charges against the club, Mohamad Rizal filed a letter of representation to the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) earlier this year, in April. This was his second time doing so, after the AGC rejected his first representation letter, which was submitted on 12 December last year. 

The stand-up routine video which landed Crackhouse Comedy Club in trouble, involved jokes on Islam, which caused it to draw furor from Malaysians - many of whom were Muslim.

The comedian, Siti Nuramira binti Abdullah said, “I’m a Malay Muslim and I have memorised 15 verses of the Quran,” after which she stripped off her hijab and baju kurung, to show a more revealing outfit that she had worn underneath. The routine was profanity-laden as well. Nuramira was arrested but went on to plead not guilty of insulting Islam.

When the video went viral, CCC took to their Facebook page to share that they “strongly condemn the contents of the now-viral video showing an individual allegedly insulting Islam during and open mic show on our premises.”

An official release stated, "The Crackhouse Comedy Club's reputation has been damaged by this person who appears to have her own agenda. The club was neither party to this nor did the management condone it."

Join #PRAsia on 2 November in Singapore and 8 November in Malaysia, connecting 100+ PR and communication leaders worldwide to share ideas, forge partnerships, and unlock endless possibilities.

Related articles:
Crackhouse Comedy Club owner makes a another attempt to rid cybercrime charges
KL Crackhouse Comedy Club reportedly goes to court to overturn blacklisted status
Online chatter around Crackhouse Comedy Club video goes viral with 100k engagements