A High Court judge on Thursday rejected a bid by a former civil servant to challenge the government’s decision to force him into retirement after he questioned the need to declare allegiance to the SAR and failed to submit his signed oath on time.

Wong Chau-ming, a former assistant taxation officer, missed the deadline for handing it in by several months, after he wrote to the Inland Revenue Department asking why the declaration was necessary.

Around two weeks after Wong submitted the pledge in August 2021, he was ordered by the civil service secretary to "retire in the public interest".

In seeking a judicial review, Wong said the secretary's order was "tainted with procedural impropriety" and that no reason was given for the move.

But in handing down his decision, judge Russell Coleman said the government had made it clear that it would terminate an officer’s service if he or she fails to sign and return the declaration by the deadline without reasonable excuse.

"The applicant could not be left in any doubt as to the reason for the decision – namely that he had failed to duly sign and return the declaration within the stipulated deadline, and had failed to provide a reasonable explanation, so that the government had lost confidence in him," the judgement wrote.

Coleman said it was "erroneous" for Wong to believe this his enquiries would somehow "stop the clock", adding that no agreement to extend the deadline was ever made.

The judge added the retirement order was a "logical step" to take in those circumstances, and ordered Wong to pay the legal costs for the government.