A lawyer has called for Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh to revive circuit sittings of the Federal Court and Court of Appeal across Peninsular Malaysia, saying it would improve access to apex court proceedings and foster professional development among younger Bar members.
Currently, hearings of both courts are limited to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya, with designated sittings in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
“Both courts could sit occasionally in major cities to hear criminal and civil appeals, allowing young lawyers to observe proceedings and pick up advocacy skills from senior lawyers arguing cases,” said Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar.
He noted that in the past, the top courts had scheduled two- to three-day sittings in Georgetown, Johor Bahru and Kota Bharu.
“This practice should be revived and extended to other towns,” he added, ahead of Wan Ahmad Farid’s inaugural policy address, scheduled for Wednesday.
Wan Ahmad Farid was appointed chief justice last week.
Syed Iskandar also said that circuit sittings would allow local Bar committees and lawyers to engage with the nation’s top judges outside formal courtroom settings, strengthening professional ties between the bench and the bar.
Former Malaysian Bar president Salim Bashir said reforms in appellate procedures were needed, particularly in the timely delivery of written judgments.
“Prompt delivery of written judgments is one of the key functions of judges, and a failure to do so would violate constitutional guarantees and the public trust,” he said.
Salim urged appellate judges to provide written grounds of judgment when ordering retrials or remitting cases for the defence to be called in criminal appeals.
He also suggested that retired and senior judges be tapped to mentor serving judges on judgment writing.
He warned that the backlog of cases—especially in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor—has worsened over the past year due to delays in replacing retiring judges.
“Some cases that were registered this year were given longer trial dates. This is unfair to those accused languishing in remand prisons without bail,” he said.
Lawyer A Srimurugan proposed that Wan Ahmad Farid explore mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to ease the courts’ caseload.
“Cases like defamation, medical negligence, family law, commercial and contractual disputes could be settled out of court without going through lengthy trials and appeals,” he said.
“Individual, family and business reputations could be spared if parties were amicable to settlements, but this needs to be led by experienced judicial minds with a win-win formula for disputing parties.”
Counsel Ramesh Sivakumar, meanwhile, urged Wan Ahmad Farid—who also chairs the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC)—to ensure that judicial commissioners are drawn from among the more versatile members of the Bar and the judicial and legal service.
“The JAC must also ensure they are men and women of integrity, impartial and have the ability to make timely judgments and have good legal writing skills,” he said.
Ramesh called on the chief justice to appoint senior lawyers to the bench, as did former chief justice Zaki Azmi.
“These lawyers, who were finally promoted to the Court of Appeal, did well in the disposal of cases and wrote some groundbreaking judgments,” he added.
