PUTRAJAYA: Attorney-general Tommy Thomas says all court cases will proceed as usual while a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigates allegations of judicial misconduct.
He said all cases at all levels of the country’s Superior and Subordinate Courts would continue to be heard.
“Any request for any postponement of any case must be made by a party to the relevant court made in the ordinary way,” he said.
“It would be a normal exercise of judicial function for a judge to decide whether any postponement should be refused or granted,” he said, following Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement this morning that an RCI would be set up to investigate the 63-page affidavit filed on Feb 14 in support of an application by Sangeet Kaur Deo.
Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer had revealed explosive and detailed information on numerous incidences of alleged judicial interference in the nation’s judiciary, including in a decision on Karpal Singh’s appeal on sedition charges at the Court of Appeal.
The establishment of a RCI, Tommy said, did not mean that an automatic or blanket postponement of all cases would follow and the current scrutiny into the judicial arm of the government was not the first in our history.
“In 1988, two tribunals were set up under Article 125 of the Federal Constitution to enquire into allegations of judicial misconduct against six Supreme Court judges,” he said.
“In 2007, a RCI into the V.K. Lingam video clip was established to investigate an allegation of intervention in the judicial appointment process by some Malaysian judges,” he added.
Tommy said in all these precedents, the ordinary business at all the courts proceeded as usual and no adjournment was entertained by the courts.
“Litigants are entitled to have their cases heard and determined in courts, while judges and lawyers owe a duty to ensure that the administration of justice is not interrupted, he added.
“To suggest that court proceedings and the administration of justice should be put on hold pending the completion of the enquiry by the RCI is without any factual or legal basis.”
Tommy also hoped that public speculation on alleged judicial misconduct would cease.
“The RCI must be permitted to discharge its important duties in a calm and measured way,” he said.