The Federal Court has yet to deliver its decision on the appeal of former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, who was found guilty by the lower courts of corruptly using his position to obtain land to which he was sentenced to 12 months’ jail.
A five-member bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, have yet to deliver its decision although Khir's appeal was heard exactly four months ago, on Jan 19.
Khir Toyo was found guilty by the Shah Alam High Court in 2011 and the Court of Appeal in 2013.
To make matters more puzzling, one of the judges on the five-member Federal Court bench which heard Khir's appeal - Justice Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha - who was born on May 16, 1949, may have retired.
Judges at superior courts faces compulsory retirement at the age of 66, unless the term is extended.
A check with the court's cause list shows no decision on Khir is scheduled to be announced until the end of this month.
Previously, Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria had issued a directive that all court judgments, including those from the superior courts, will have to be delivered within three months.
The top judicial officer in the country explained that the standard practice for the Court of Appeal and Federal Court was to complete their judgment within three months after the case was heard.
“But in some cases, the courts (the Court of Appeal and Federal Court) would take a longer time, may be six months to complete the judgment. It depends on the complexity of the case,” the CJ had said.
Besides Zulkefli and Tan, the other members of the panel are Federal Court judges Ahmad Ma'arop, Hasan Lah and Ramly Ali.
In comparison, the Federal Court judgment of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against the conviction of his Sodomy II case - which was heard from Oct 28 to Nov 7 last year - was delivered on Feb 10, slightly over three months.
Khir, who was formerly Sungai Panjang assemblyperson, was found guilty of corruption by the Shah Alam High Court on Dec 23, 2011, for obtaining for himself and his wife Zahrah Kechik, two lots of land and a house at No 8 & 10, Jalan Suasa 7/1L, from Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Hayroni, at RM3.5 million - a much lower price than the RM6.5 million Ditamas paid for it in 2004.
The Court of Appeal had upheld the conviction and sentence of 12 months’ jail on May 30, 2013.
Federal Court panel still legal
Khir is represented by senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, M Athimulan and Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, while senior DPP Mohd Masri Daud represented the prosecution.
On Justice Tan's possible retirement, former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram (photo) told Malaysiakini that the coram is still legal in delivering a decision on the case.
He referred to Section 78 (1) of the Court of Judicature Act 1964, that in the “course of any proceeding, or, in the case of a reserved judgment, at any time before delivery of the judgment, any judge of the court hearing the proceeding is unable, through illness or any other cause, to attend the proceeding to exercise his functions as a judge, the hearing of the proceeding shall continue before, and judgment or reserved judgment, as the case may be”.
That section further added the remaining judges of the court, not being less than two, and the court shall, for the purposes of the proceeding, be deemed to be duly constituted notwithstanding the absence or inability to act of the judge.
The Kehakiman website, which is the official site of the Federal Court registrar, still shows Justice Tan as one of Federal Court judges. There is however a possibility that his contract could have been extended. - M'kini
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