Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh has called on Court of Appeal judge Abdul Malik Ishak to tender his resignation following an allegation of plagiarism against him.

azlan "This is to save the reputation of the judiciary and country from suffering further embarrassment,” said Karpal, a senior lawyer.

"The right and honourable thing for him to do is to resign, since Justice Malik did not deny (the allegation) when I asked (in two letters to him) before the motion was brought to Parliament.”

Karpal also criticised Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz for shifting the blame to the judiciary, over the absence of action against Justice Malik.

"I think Nazri interpreted the law wrongly for, under Article 125 of the federal constitution, the only way to remove a judge is to hold a tribunal. The chief justice cannot remove a judge as there is no provision for him to do so," Karpal said.

NONE Nazri (left) , the de facto law minister, had been asked last Thursday why no action had been taken against the judge, although his predecessor Rais Yatim knew about the allegation.

“We (the executive) cannot  interfere in another branch of the government, namely the judiciary. Although the case was brought up, we cannot interfere as this could be interpreted as interference by the executive You should ask the judiciary about this,” Nazri had said, adding the right person to ask was the chief justice.

The complaint had been taken to then chief justice Eusoff Chin in 2000, when Singapore complained that Justice Malik had plagiarised a judgment by one of its judges.

Karpal said the only way a judge could have been removed in 2000 was if the prime minister had moved for the matter to be taken before a tribunal.

This, he said, was done in the case of then Lord President Salleh Abbas, who was removed from his position.

Disciplinary panel now

Today, though, provisions of the Judges Ethics Committee Act 2010 apply. These state that a disciplinary committee can be set up to hear complaints against judges.

zaki azmi interview 140911 Karpal said he had wanted to move for a complaint against former chief justice Zaki Azmi (right) to be heard by the committee.

“However, I had to withdraw my appeal last week, as Zaki had retired,” he said.

On Oct 14, Karpal had submitted a motion to the Dewan Rakyat speaker to refer Justice Abdul Malik to a tribunal.

A week later, Karpal came face to face before the judge in a drug trafficking appeal, and sought his recusal .

The judge agreed to this, fixing another date for the appeal to be heard.