Court orders govt, retired judges to settle pensions-related lawsuit within a month

KUALA LUMPUR: The government and a group of 35 individuals consisting of retired judges and dependants have been given one month to come up with a settlement over a lawsuit regarding pensions.

The High Court gave the directive when the case was brought up for case management online before Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh here on Wednesday (Jan 31).

Lawyer Christopher Leong, who represented the plaintiffs, said the court gave time for both parties to discuss a settlement.

The parties in the suit are to update the court on the settlement in a case management fixed for March 5.

The plaintiffs filed the suit on Jan 24, 2022.

They include retired judges such as former Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff; former Chief Judges of Malaya Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob and Tan Sri Haidar Mohamed Nor; and former Court of Appeal judge Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, who is also former Parliament speaker.

They named the government, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Public Services director-general as the first to fourth defendants.

The group is seeking a declaration that failure to fix, through a government gazette, an appropriate increment of more than 2% in their pension and other benefits pursuant to Section 15B(2) of the Judges' Remuneration Act 1971 had violated Articles 125(7) and 125(9) of the Federal Constitution.

The plaintiffs are also seeking an order that the second or third defendant (the Prime Minister and the Cabinet) shall advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to fix a higher increment of more than 2% annually on the pension and other benefits given to them, effective July 1, 2015 pursuant to Section 15B(2) of the Judges' Remuneration Act.

The plaintiffs also said that in pursuant to Section 15B, the pensions of retired judges and dependents of deceased judges were adjusted automatically based on the current salaries of the serving judges which were reviewed in stages from time to time, as required under Articles 125(7) and 125(9) of the Federal Constitution.