Maintain 8-week deadline for written judgments, says lawyer

 

The prosecution’s appeal from Bung Moktar Radin and Zizie Izette Samad’s acquittal has not been heard due to the unavailability of the High Court’s grounds of judgment. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: A court practice direction requiring judges to furnish written grounds of judgment within eight weeks of the filing of a notice of appeal must be maintained, a lawyer said.

Rafique Rashid Ali said the deadline is more than adequate and would ensure that the written judgment accurately captures the facts, submissions and findings made in a case.

He said judges who preside over a trial should be able to comply with the directive since they would have had the benefit of hearing the testimony of witnesses themselves.

“The current practice direction should be maintained so that the written grounds made available is pristine as the facts of the case are still fresh in the mind of the trial judge,” said Rafique.

Likewise, he said, the same timeline ought to be sufficient for judges sitting to hear appeals, adding that any delay in the delivery of the decision could affect the outcome of the case to the prejudice of either the accused or even the prosecution.

“The quality of judgments will be suspect if there is inordinate delay, and this could be a ground to win appeals,” he said.

The lawyer was commenting after it was reported last week that a High Court had yet to provide its reasoning for acquitting Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and wife Zizie Izette Samad from corruption charges over a RM150 million Felcra investment.

As a result, the Court of Appeal has been unable to fix a hearing date for the appeal.

On Sept 7, Justice Azhar Abdul Hamid, exercising his revisionary powers, had allowed the couple’s appeal, holding that the sessions court judge who presided over the trial, was wrong to call for the duo to enter their defence.

The prosecution had filed its notice of appeal 15 weeks ago, on Sept 19.

Lawyer KA Ramu said a better practice would be for judges to provide the full grounds of judgment on the day their decision is pronounced.

“The losing party will know immediately why it has lost the case,” he said, citing the corruption case brought against Rosmah Mansor as an example.

Rosmah, wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, was found guilty by Justice Zaini Mazlan of corruption in September 2022. Zaini, then a High Court judge, delivered his written judgment on the day the decision was announced.

“An appellate court will be less inclined to disturb a judge’s findings when judgment is delivered soon after a verdict unless there are obvious errors in the verdict,” he added. - FMT