Sixteen law students today filed an appeal to overturn a high court judgement last month which maintained the decision to nullify the results of last years Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination.

The appeal in the form of a 12-page memorandum was filed at the Appeal Court registry this afternoon by acting counsel Karpal Singh.

The appeal will be heard on March 25.

Kuala Lumpur high court judge Arifin Zakaria had d on Jan 19 ruled that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) did not act in bad faith when they annulled the results last year.

The six-member LPQB came under fire last November following its decision to annul the July CLP exam and the October supplementary examination results after it was discovered that questions had been leaked to candidates.

In addition to the leakage, marks were also discovered to have been tampered with, which forced the board to re-grade the papers. Following the regrading exercise, half of the students who had initially obtained a pass, failed.

The board has since held CLP examination director Khalid Yusof, who has been with the board since 1993, responsible for the irregularities.

Judge erred

Karpal in the memorandum said the high court judge had erred when he did not hold up the CLP students right to have adequate and reasonable opportunities to be heard before the exam results were nullified.

Karpal also criticised Arifin for not holding Khalid responsible for the CLP debacle.

The learned judge ... completely misdirected himself in holding the conduct of the director could not be impugned when it was judicial adjudication of the conduct of the director which would determine the issue the court posed to itself, Karpal said.

At the time of the controversy, former attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid served as chairperson of the LPQB assisted by Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, Bar Council chairman Mah Weng Kwai, Federal Court chief registrar Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail and academic Shamsuddin Suhor.

The CLP debacle sparked off a strong reaction in the government with Minister in the Prime Ministers Department and de facto law minister Rais Yatim announcing that the CLP might be replaced by a common bar examination.

He also proposed that the board be made more transparent in carrying out its operations.