What is Article 16 of the Negeri Sembilan Constitution 1959?
A clause-by-clause guide to the Dewan Keadilan dan Undang: who may refer a question of Malay Custom to it, and why its advice is final.
No provision of the Negeri Sembilan Constitution has featured more prominently in the state's constitutional crisis since April 2026 than Article 16.
Article 16 of the Negeri Sembilan Constitution 1959 creates the Dewan Keadilan dan Undang (DKU), defines the matters on which it gives advice, and provides that such advice shall be final and shall not be challenged in court.
What each clause means
Article 16(1): The council, the subject matter, and the persons who may refer a question to it
(1) There shall be a Dewan Keadilan dan Undang to be called in English “The Council of the Yang di-Pertuan Besar and the Ruling Chiefs” hereinafter referred to as the Dewan to advice on questions relating to Malay Custom in any part of the State including questions relating to the election or succession to or removal from or vacation of office of any of the Ruling Chiefs referred to in Article XIV or on other matters which may be referred to it by His Highness or any of the Ruling Chiefs and to exercise such functions as may be conferred upon it by this Constitution or any other written law.
The clause does four things at once.
It establishes the Dewan Keadilan dan Undang and gives it an English name, “The Council of the Yang di-Pertuan Besar and the Ruling Chiefs”.
It fixes the subject matter: questions relating to Malay Custom in any part of the State.
It then spells out one category of such questions, being the election of, succession to, removal from, or vacation of office of any of the Ruling Chiefs referred to in Article 14. Article 14 covers the four Undangs of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol and Rembau, and the Tunku Besar Tampin.
Finally it adds two further heads of work: other matters referred to the Dewan by the Yang di-Pertuan Besar or by any of the Ruling Chiefs, and functions conferred on the Dewan by the Constitution or by any other written law. Article 30 is an example of the last of these, giving the DKU the determination of precedence among the Ruling Chiefs and other dignitaries.
Article 16 is concerned with the advice given by the Dewan on questions of Malay Custom and the legal consequences that attach to that advice. The customary act of choosing or removing an Undang belongs to the Luak institutions.
Article 16(2): The Menteri Besar’s power of referral
(2) The Menteri Besar may refer to the Dewan for its advice any question relating to Malay Custom in any part of the State including questions relating to the election or succession to or removal from or vacation of office of any of the Ruling Chiefs referred to in Article XIV.
The Menteri Besar may refer a question of Malay Custom to the Dewan for its advice, including any of the four events listed in Article 16(1) concerning a Ruling Chief.
The word is “may”. The clause confers a discretion rather than imposing a duty, and it does not set a timetable nor an obligation on the Dewan to answer.
It is worth reading Article 16(2) alongside Article 17. The Menteri Besar is not a member of the Dewan. Article 17 provides only that he shall be invited to attend where the Dewan deliberates on State or National policy. Article 16(2) therefore gives the elected government a way to put a question, without a seat and without a vote.
Article 16(3): The finality of the advice, and the bar on challenge in court
(3) The advice of the Dewan on questions relating to Malay Custom in any part of the State including advice on any question relation to the election or succession to or removal from or vacation of office of any of the Ruling Chiefs referred to in Article XIV shall be final and shall not be challenged or called in question in any court on any ground.
The clause does two separate things. It makes the advice final. It then bars a court from entertaining a challenge, and the words “on any ground” are the widest formulation available to a drafter.
The clause is not original to 1959. The Article has been amended once, by the notification gazetted as W.K.N.S. 546/1982 and in force from 29 July 1982, which gave Article 16 its present three-clause shape and inserted the bar in clause (3). The year before, the Federal Court had declined jurisdiction in a Negeri Sembilan dispute over the election of an Undang, and Salleh Abas FJ observed in the course of that judgment that Article 16 as it then stood contained no words stating that its validity could not be questioned in any court (GK Legal, 6 June 2026).
Article 16(3) is the provision counsel for the DKU relied on at the Seremban High Court on 13 May 2026, arguing that the court had no jurisdiction to hear a suit over the events of 17 April (Free Malaysia Today, 13 May 2026).
What Article 16 does not say
It says nothing about the Yang di-Pertuan Besar. The Article is confined to the Ruling Chiefs referred to in Article 14. The office of Yang di-Pertuan Besar is dealt with in Articles 7 to 12, and the power to call upon him to withdraw or abdicate sits with the Undangs under Article 10, following a full and complete enquiry. The DKU has no stated role in that process, which means the finality in Article 16(3) has nothing to attach to on that question.
It gives the Luak institutions no express right of referral. Article 16(1) names the Yang di-Pertuan Besar and the Ruling Chiefs as the persons who may refer a matter, and Article 16(2) adds the Menteri Besar. The Lembaga Adat, the Buapak, the Ibu Soko, the waris, and the office-holder whose position is the question itself appear nowhere on that list. The customary structures that perform the act have no textual right to bring the resulting question forward, and no express procedural role.
It requires no reasons and no publication. Article 16 sets no obligation to state grounds, to hear the person affected, or to make the advice public. Article 22 requires that minutes be kept of all proceedings of the Dewan, and it stops there. Article 16 does not require the Dewan to publish reasons for its advice. Combined with Article 16(3), this places considerable weight on the institution's own internal discipline.
It does not define Malay Custom. The phrase carries the entire weight of the Article, and it is left undefined here and in the interpretation provisions of Article 34. Article 32 preserves the ancient constitution and ancient custom of the State so far as they are not inconsistent with the First Part, which is the nearest the Constitution comes to marking out the boundary.
The bar in Article 16(3) attaches to advice. Article 16(3) is drafted to protect advice on Malay Custom. On the election, succession, removal or vacation of office of an Undang, the Dewan's function is advisory, and that advice is what the finality clause covers.
Article 16 establishes the DKU, the questions it may determine, who may refer those questions, and the effect of its advice.
Footnote: The Constitution numbers its Articles in Roman numerals. This publication uses Arabic numerals for readability.
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