Contract judicial officers can reduce lower courts’ case backlog, says ex-judge

Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal says sessions court judges are increasingly handling complex criminal cases, including corruption, CBT and money laundering.

According to retired apex court judge Harminder Singh Dhaliwal, some 2.4 million new criminal cases and 484,000 civil suits were registered by lower courts across the country last year. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 The government should consider appointing magistrates and sessions court judges on a contract basis to help clear the lower court’s mounting backlog of cases, a retired Federal Court judge said today.

Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal said amendments to the Federal Constitution may be required to allow the Judicial and Legal Service Commission to recruit judicial officers on a temporary basis.

“The salary and perks of these temporary recruits must be on par with the permanent staff, or else it will be tantamount to discrimination,” said Harmindar, who served as a magistrate and later sessions court judge earlier in his career.

He however said it was still too early to say whether practising lawyers would be drawn to serve as judicial officers.

“They prefer to apply for the post of judicial commissioners, which is equivalent in function to a High Court judge,” he told FMT.

Harminder was commenting after Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh called for the government to increase the number of judicial officers serving in the sessions and magistrates’ courts across the country.

At the opening of the legal year on Jan 12, the chief justice said that the 335 sessions court judges and magistrates nationwide were struggling with heavy caseloads involving increasingly complex matters.

He said about 1.5 million criminal cases were registered in 2021, with the number rising to about 2.4 million last year.

Meanwhile, civil case registrations increased from about 300,000 to 484,000 over the same period.

Wan Ahmad Farid said Malaysia’s continued economic development, socio-economic transformation, and evolving societal dynamics have led to a significant increase in case filings across all courts.

Harmindar said sessions court judges now handle complex cases, such as corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering, but are often hampered when accused persons file interlocutory applications that stall trials.

Lawyer Salim Bashir said magistrates are also required to preside over petty crimes, and deal with remand proceedings.

“In fact, about 80% of the criminal offences under the Penal Code have to be dealt with by judicial officers in the lower courts,” he said.

Salim proposed that the government explore decriminalising self‑administration of drugs so that suspects are no longer prosecuted under Section 15 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

He said such charges have caused the number of cases registered in the magistrates’ courts to spike and are contributing to overcrowding in prisons.

“A better option is for the police or the National Anti-Drugs Agency to send the suspects for rehabilitation at its centres, instead of clogging the prisons pending trial,” he said.

Lawyer Burhanudeen Abdul Wahid said defamation suits and running‑down claims, as well as contractual or commercial disputes pending before the sessions courts could be resolved without trial through mediation.

“These disputes could be resolved on a win-win basis by trained and experienced court staff such as a deputy registrar,” he said.

Burhanudeen said a lot of judicial time and resources could be saved if civil trials were to be regarded as the final option. - FMT