Dec 21 hearing for bid to strike out suit against Judges Ethics Committee

 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed Dec 21 to hear an application by the Judges’ Ethics Committee and its chairperson to strike out a lawsuit against them by Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer.

Hamid Sultan’s counsel Joy W Appukuttan confirmed that this was the outcome after case management of the matter via e-review with the Kuala Lumpur High Court Registry today.

E-review is a form of online teleconferencing whereby parties in a legal matter can conduct case management with a court registrar without needing to be physically present in court.

“The striking-out application has been fixed for hearing on Dec 21,” Appukuttan told Malaysiakini today.

On Oct 27, it was reported that the committee and its chairperson filed the striking out application against Hamid Sultan’s legal action, which targeted the committee’s investigation into the senior judge’s affidavit on alleged fraud and abuses in the judiciary.

Hamid Sultan had on Oct 9 filed the originating summons to challenge the committee’s probe into his affidavit over alleged judicial misconduct.

Aside from the committee and its chairperson, the originating summons also named lawyers Sangeet Kaur Deo and Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla as defendants in the matter.

On Aug 16, it was reported that Hamid Sultan had received a show-cause letter from the Judges Ethics Committee in relation to the affidavit.

In the affidavit filed in February last year, Hamid Sultan had made several claims prompting the then Pakatan Harapan government to mull a royal commission of inquiry to probe the matter further.

However, the commission did not materialise as the Harapan government collapsed in late February this year.

Sangeet had relied on Hamid Sultan’s affidavit in her lawsuit against the chief justice over alleged judicial misconduct. However, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed her suit on Oct 22 last year.

Haniff Khatri had previously tried but did not succeed, in his bid to intervene in Sangeet’s lawsuit against the chief justice.

In his lawsuit, Hamid Sultan claimed that, among others, instead of being determined by the committee, the issues linked to his affidavit ought to be looked at by a royal commission of inquiry. - Mkini