No findings in probe over claim judge punished for siding with Indira

Hamid Abu Backer. (File pic)

PETALING JAYA: The Federal Court today said its investigation into a judge’s claim that he was reprimanded by a “top judge” for his dissenting judgment in a prominent custody battle did not find anything concrete.

The Federal Court said relevant parties who were interviewed during the probe gave “varying accounts” in a claim first made by Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer in August.

Hamid had said that he was “severely reprimanded” for his dissenting judgment in the unilateral conversion case involving M Indira Gandhi, her ex-husband and their children.

He delivered a dissenting judgment in upholding the ruling of a High Court in Ipoh where Indira had sought to nullify the conversion certificates of her three minor children.

He said, as a result, he was not assigned to hear cases relating to the Federal Constitution and public interest matters.

Early this year, a five-member Federal Court bench affirmed Hamid’s finding and allowed Indira’s appeal.

The Federal Court, however, said any attempt to reprimand a judge for his views was a serious transgression of the law and ethics.

“Any such reprimand runs contrary to the notion of independence enjoyed by every judge in the judiciary,” it said.

Meanwhile, it also said it had to suspend another investigation into the allegations of judicial interference in the late Karpal Singh’s sedition appeal, due to an ongoing police investigation into the matter and a pending court case.

Previously, lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla claimed that the outcome of Karpal’s sedition appeal two years ago was altered due to judicial interference by a senior judge. FMT