Loh Wai Kong sought a ruling from the courts that Malaysian citizens were entitled to travel overseas as a fundamental right under Article 5 of the Constitution.
He returned to Malaysia in April 1975, and was charged with a criminal offense in the High Court at Ipoh on 2 August 1976.
The authorities rejected the application, saying that he was involved in a criminal case and that the issuance of a passport was at the discretion of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King).
[1] The High Court rejected Loh's application, but made a number of statements in its ruling which the government disagreed with.
[1] However, he cited with approval the minority judgment in the case, and stated that the issuance of passports was a prerogative of the Malaysian government, concluding: To sum up, "personal liberty" in article 5 means liberty relating to or concerning the person or body of the individual; that article does not confer on the citizen a fundamental right to leave the country.