Single judge may hear bid to appeal to apex court, says CJ

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun leads the way at the opening of the legal year today.

PUTRAJAYA: The judiciary is considering having a single judge to hear applications for leave to appeal to the Federal Court as part of further reform, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun said.

At present, she said at least three judges hear such applications and this took up significant judicial time and resources.

“This is yet another proposal to increase the efficiency of the hearing of appeals at the Federal Court,” she said in her speech when opening the legal year today.

Elaborating on the matter, she told reporters later that she could not state when a single judge could sit to hear leave applications due to reservations from the Malaysian Bar.

“The Bar’s position is that they want the practice of having three judges to remain. So I need to discuss further with the stakeholders that include the Attorney-General’s Chambers,” she said.

Tengku Maimun said no amendments to the law, like the Courts of Judicature Act (COJA), needed to be made to allow for a single judge to hear the leave application.

In civil cases, leave of the Federal Court must be obtained first before the merit of the appeal is heard.

The top judge said she would also strive to ensure that a full Federal Court bench that heard arguments would also remain when judgments were delivered, despite some push-back factors.

“We agree that should be the situation,” she said in response to several recent Federal Court rulings which were delivered by three or four members when five judges had originally heard the appeals. This was due to retirement.

Senior lawyers had voiced their concerns that the reduced number of judges delivering their verdicts was unfair to the losing or winning litigants as they were deprived of the legal opinion of the judge who had retired.

They said it was the legitimate expectation of every litigant that the judges who heard the appeal should also deliver the judgment.

Tengku Maimun said the scenario of the fewer number of judges delivering verdicts existed due to the heavy workload of hearing leave applications and appeals.

“As a result, the full bench could not deliver judgment as one or two judges would have retired,” she said.

Tengku Maimun, who became the top judge last May, said the bench would like to have a formal Judicial Academy to improve the quality and content of written grounds.

“A draft Bill is ready and will be presented to the Cabinet in due course. A formal Judicial Institute will enable us to introduce more structured facilities including collaboration with other judiciaries,” she added.

To combat the perception of corruption, Tengku Maimun said a policy had been in force to see that officers would be transferred once every three years to ensure they did not get too comfortable or prone to temptation at their workplace.

“It is also a policy requirement that judges and judicial officers have to declare their assets to the chief justice and the chief registrar respectively,” she added. - FMT