MAHATHIR AT IT AGAIN? LAWYERS IN UPROAR SENIOR JUDGE, WHO CALLED FOR RCI TO CLEAN UP THE JUDICIARY, ‘DELIBERATELY LEFT OUT’ FOR PROMOTION TO APEX COURT

KUALA LUMPUR ― The prime minister should help ensure a merit-based judiciary in light of the alleged omission of a senior judge in next week’s promotion of judges to the Federal Court, lawyer Arun Kasi said today.

In a letter to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Arun highlighted that Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer is the second most senior judge in the Court of Appeal and is therefore a suitable candidate to be elevated to the highest court.

“Four new Federal Court judges will swear in on Monday 26/11/2018.

“I was shocked that Justice Hamid Sultan (judge of Court of Appeal) had been deliberately left out in the elevation to the Federal Court, despite that he is the second senior for elevation,” the lawyer said in his letter that was sighted by Malay Mail.

“In fact, there is no judge in the current judiciary who can match his qualifications, which include the fact that he holds a PhD in law, has written more than 10 books and 1,000 judgments,” he said.

In the two-page letter, Arun highlighted Hamid Sultan’s other roles such as being an honorary fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute, an adjunct professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia and the Multimedia University and honorary visiting professor of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University in India.

Arun said that Hamid Sultan’s judgments that upheld the right to freedom of peaceful assembly in several cases such as Nik Noorhafizi, Nik Nazmi and Teoh Meng Kee had paved the way for the new government under Pakatan Harapan.

“His juniors holding single law degree bypassing him is an insult to meritocracy in judicial appointments. This is not expected in new Malaysia,” he added in the letter.

Arun claimed that the non-promotion of Hamid Sultan creates the perception that the latter was being “punished possibly” for revealing alleged interference with the judiciary in the M. Indira Gandhi case and for asking for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to clean up the judiciary.

“I trust that YAB Tun will take note of the above and will do the needful to give us a meritocracy judiciary,” he concluded in the letter to the prime minister.

On August 16 during the International Malaysia Law Conference, Hamid Sultan had alleged that he was reprimanded by a top judge and subsequently not being assigned to hear public interest or constitutional cases due to his dissenting judgment in Indira’s case.

In the case involving the Muslim convert father’s unilateral conversion of the Hindu mother’s children to Islam, Hamid Sultan had among other things said the civil court have jurisdiction to hear court challenges involving the administrative decisions of Islamic bodies, and was where a dispute involving both a Muslim and non-Muslim should be heard.

In Malaysia, suitable candidates as judges for the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court are selected by the Judicial Appointments Commission, which are then passed on to the prime minister for the latter’s consideration.

It is believed that the prime minister has the ultimate say as the prime minister can request the commission to recommend more names for him to consider after receiving their recommendations.

MALAY MAIL

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