Chief Justice: Judges independent of political interference

KUALA LUMPUR: Judges are independent of political interference when making decisions in court, said Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif.

“As for the independence of the judiciary, I can assure you that we are very independent and free from the influence of politicians,” said Justice Md Raus.

He was answering a question from The Star senior consulting editor in charge of training and legal affairs T. Selva on the extent of judges’ independence during a question-and-answer session at a luncheon talk by the Malaysian Press Institute here Tuesday.

“You can ask all the judges whether there have been any instances where the Chief Justice or President of the Court of Appeal has told them that they must decide in a particular way because this is an important case,” he added.

He said that judges had been told to make decisions in accordance with the law.

“So they are free to decide and are independent in terms of making decisions,” he said.

Md Raus, who was appointed to the post on April 1 this year, said his immediate priority is to clear the backlog of cases.

He added that he is continuing the reforms of the Malaysian judiciary first initiated by the 12th Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi soon after his appointment in 2008.

The reforms by Zaki saw a substantial number of backlogged cases being cleared within three years thanks to initiatives such as fast-tracking cases, a strict non-postponement policy, the computerisation of courtrooms, and establishing specialist courts.

In 2011, the World Bank in a report recommended the reform to judiciaries in other countries dealing with the same problem.

“We had countries such as Singapore, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia among others visiting us in 2012 to learn our model,” Md Raus said.

He added that he has his long-term sights set on improving the quality of judges, which he plans to do through continuous training sessions.

“The training is done three times a year in Malaysia,” he said.