KUALA LUMPUR: Questionable dealings among judges were aired after a former judge resurrected a controversial 1995 dispute over company shares, prompting the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang to demand an explanation from the chief justice, Ariffin Zakaria.
Lim asked whether a vengeful former chief justice, Eusoffe Chin, had twice blocked the promotion of an appeal court judge who stood up to him.
In a statement today Lim demanded an explanation from the current chief justice, Ariffin Zakaria, who heads the Judicial Appointments Commission, which decides on appointments to the three superior courts.
Lim said Ariffin should explain whether the controversial Ayer Molek v Insas case of 1995 was one reason for Justice Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus being twice by-passed and denied elevation to the Federal Court.
Lim wanted to know if Justice Hishamuddin’s promotions were thwarted by Eusoffe Chin exacting vengeance on the judge, who had declared as invalid a decision by a superior three-man federal court bench headed by Chin.
Justice Hishamudin had ruled that the bench of Chin, an appeal court judge, and a high court judge, was improperly set up because the third judge, Pajan Singh Gill, was not legally competent to sit on the federal court bench as he was only a high court judge at the time.
Lim also referred to an article by retired appeal judge Justice K.C. Vohrah last year that Chin had tried to influence an unnamed appeal court judge who was about to hear a shares dispute between the Ayer Molek Rubber Company and Insas Bhd in 1995.
In the article, published in a Court of Appeal 20th anniversary booklet last year, Justice Vohrah had stated that Eusoff had called the judge into his chambers before the appeal was heard and when the judge entered, the CJ pointed to a pile of files on his table. “He (Eusoff) said the papers were related to the Ayer Molek case and he (the CJ) indicated that the appeal had no merit,” Malaysiakini quoted Vohrah as saying.
Vohrah was on the bench that heard the Ayer Molek case, with appeal judge NH Chan and co-opted high court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, later the first woman chief judge of the high court of Malaya.
The three judges held that lawyers for Insas had abused the High Court process, creating grave injustices; the lawyers had “brought the administration of justice into disrepute” which might “give the impression that litigants can choose the judge before whom they wish to appear”, the appeal judges held.
Lim said the Ayer Molek case was one among other cases and events in the eighties and nineties which “marked the downfall of Malaysia’s reputation for judicial independence and just rule of law”, starting with Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s sacking of the head of the judiciary, Tun Salleh Abbas, and two Supreme Court judges in 1988.
Vohrah had written that Court of Appeal decision in the Ayer Molek case was overturned by the Federal Court bench one week later; the Malaysian Bar, aghast at the Federal Court decision, said the panel headed by Eusoff was illegally constituted because the third judge on the panel, Pajan Singh Gill, was not legally competent to sit on that bench as he was only a High Court judge then.
The matter was raised in a RM100 million libel suit brought by Insas lawyer VT Lingam over an article in a foreign business magazine about the Ayer Molek case.
When the Lingam libel case came up before Justice Mohamad Hishamudin, the judge dismissed Lingam’s suit; he “stood his ground saying the Federal Court panel by Eusoff was not legally constituted” and had upheld the earlier appeal court judgement by Chan, Siti Norma and Vohrah.
Lingam and Chin later gained notoriety after photographs were published showing the pair on holiday together, leading to a royal commision of inquiry when a video tape was published apparently showing Lingam arranging for judges’ appointments. The royal commission censured both Lingam and Chin and four others including Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but no action has been taken since.
Lim questioned whether Eusoffe Chin had extracted double vengeance on Justice Hishamudin by twice denying him promotion, first in September 2013 and again in the latest batch of judicial elevations this year.-February 28,2015. Free Malaysia Today.
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