Complaint against 'plagiarist judge' rejected

Investigations on a complaint that a Court of Appeal judge had plagiarised a Singapore court judgment in 2000 has no merit, said the Chief Justice’s Office today.

Following this, the complaint by lawyer Karpal Singh has been rejected, said special officer 1 to chief justice Che Wan Zaidi Che Wan Ibrahim in a statement today.

He said the CJ’s Office has sent Karpal (right) an official reply.

The department said they had initiated an investigation on the said judge based on Karpal’s complaint letter dated Sept 29.

“An investigation has been carried out by the chief justice (CJ).

“Based on the investigation, and after a discussion with the Court of Appeal president based on Section 13 (1) of the Judges’ Code of Ethics 2009, the CJ is of the opinion that the allegation of plagiarism by the said Court of Appeal judge as raised by Karpal Singh has no merit, and therefore the compliant has been rejected,” said Che Wan Zaidi.

Earlier, Karpal, who is DAP national chairperson and Bukit Gelugor MP had called on the said judge, Abdul Malik Ishak, to resign over the allegations of plagiarism.

According to Karpal, the errant judge had, ironically, plagiarised a former Singapore judge GP Selvam’s judgment on a copyright issue.

Cabinet minister Rais Yatim later confirmed when he was de facto law minister, an official complaint was indeed lodged in 2000 against the judge for plagiarism.