PUTRAJAYA: One of the reforms which the judiciary is considering is to delegate one judge of the Federal Court to deal with applications for leave to appeal.
Chief Justice Tan Sri Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said currently at least three judges hear such applications and this takes up significant judicial time and resources.
She said if one judge deals with such applications it would help to increase the efficiency of hearing appeals at the Federal Court.
"For this measure, there is no need to amend the law as the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 has a provision that they (the applications) must be heard by one judge of the Federal Court but I think over the years the practice seems to have changed," she said.
Tengku Maimun, however, said she can't be certain when this measure would take effect as it was still being discussed.
"I can't state the time (when this measure will be implemented). Generally the Bar (Bar Council) doesn't seem to agree because basically their position is that we should carry on with whatever practice we have now.
"So I need to discuss further with the stakeholders which is the Bar and Attornery-General's Chambers and see whether we can implement this," she said during the press conference after launching Opening of the Legal Year 2020 (OLY 2020).
In her launching speech she said keeping judges updated with the necessary skills was an important aspect of the reform.
"The judiciary will continue to develop its existing programmes in the Judicial Academy to improve the quality and content of its judgments," she said.
Tengku Maimun said there was also a proposal to revamp the entire structure by introducing a legislation to establish a formal Judicial Academy.
"A draft Bill is ready and will be presented to the Cabinet in due course.
"A formal Judicial Institute will enable us to introduce more structured facilities including collaboration with other judiciaries," she said.
By middle of this year, the entire judiciary hoped to achieve full digitalisation at the appellate level, as considerable resources both judicial and financial were wasted with the conventional ways, she said.
"We have already gone paperless at the appellate level in Sabah and Sarawak, similarly in Putrajaya, and we plan to achieve full digitalisation by middle of this year.
"Practically speaking it means that we are able to refer to voluminous documents on a single electronic device,"she said.
Other reforms were Judicial Clerkship Programmes to recruit law clerks, fighting corruption, improving efficiency of court processes, expansion of the e-court system throughout Peninsular Malaysia and expansion of e-review.
In line with this year’s theme, ‘Moving Forward’, Tengku Maimun said the judiciary would focus significantly on how to reshape judicial reform in Malaysia.
"And this requires a strong tripartite synergy between the Judiciary, the Bar and the Attorney General’s Chambers.
"The objective of judicial reform is to continue to achieve and enhance adherence to the Rule of Law, and my focus is on strengthening judicial independence and the overall efficiency of the judicial system," she added.