KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 – Retired judges are free to appear in court as counsel representing their clients, Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria said today.
He said it would be advantageous for the court if ex-judges appeared as counsel as they could share their experience with the bench.
“If they want to go (practice) they can proceed. First, I think it is good because of their experience. If (one) compares advantages and disadvantages, I think it is more advantageous,” he added.
Arifin said that no matter who appeared in court, the bench would decide a case based on its merits.
He said the judiciary could not prevent ex-judges from practising and should not deprive them of their right to do so.
He said they might want to practise law because of their love for the law; they can proceed, which I think is good in terms of development of the law,” he said.
Arifin was responding to a question on whether retired judges could appear in court as counsel, after officiating the Malaysian Legal and Corporate Conference 2013 here.
The two-day conference, organised jointly by The Malaysian Current Law Journal (CLJ) and the Bar Council Malaysia, carries the theme ‘Shifting Sands: Is the Law Reshaping Our Legal and Corporate Sectors?’.
The event, which seeks to bring attention to recent events in the law and their effects on both divides, has as participants former judges and lawyers and the legal fraternity from Malaysia and other countries such as Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Nigeria.
The Bar Council had said in a statement that former judges appearing in court could lead to embarrassing situations where some of them might cite their own judgments.
It was reported on an online news portal that retired Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram was likely to represent PAS in an election petition in Perak.
Arifin explained that former Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas had also appeared in court.
“Once they are retired, they are free to do whatever they want,” he said.
Commenting on election petitions, Arifin said a total of 58 petitions had been filed in Peninsular Malaysia and 11 in Sabah and Sarawak.
He said election judges had been appointed to hear the cases and they had to dispose the matter within six months.
“In fact, some of the cases have been called for case management,” he said when asked on the development in the petition cases.
Earlier, in his keynote address, Arifin said the judiciary had no doubt on the changes in the law for new legislative foundations for the legal and business sectors as they were made for good reason.
He said that in the context of commercial and corporate legislation, changes might be needed to promote new enterprises or to get rid of laws perceived to have impeded business growth and development.
Arifin noted that whatever the rationale for change, it should be stressed that any undue, premature or overly extensive modification to the law was bound to send ripples within the target sectors.
“That said, shifting tides of change within any area of the law should not be viewed negatively as the business of updating laws is a fundamental obligation of every legislative body of all modern-day governments,” he said.
He also said that the improvement in the judiciary was ongoing as it was to meet the demand of the stakeholders.
Arifin also gave credit to judges who had managed to change the public perception of the courts.
“Recently, I was informed by an in-house lawyer of a multinational company that in the past, arbitration was the norm in their agreement but now this has changed,” he said.
Arifin said it seemed that company policy now was to make the courts the first choice for dispute resolution rather than arbitration.
“This is because of the speed of disposal in our courts and savings in terms of costs,” he said.
He also said that the Construction Court was established in Kuala Lumpur early this year and by the end of this year in Shah Alam to dispose of more efficiently cases related to construction.
– BERNAMA
