Courts clearing more cases than new ones filed, says CJ

comments     Arfaeza A Aziz     Published     Updated

Chief Justice Tun Mohd Dzaiddin Abdullah today denied that the magistrate courts were facing problems in disposing of civil cases, stating that they were instead clearing the cases at a higher percentage.

Dzaiddin said that between January and April this year, the magistrate courts managed to dispose of 61,244 civil cases compared with 48,465 cases filed within the same period.

"This means the magistrate courts have reached a high percentage of 126 percent in disposal as compared with the new cases," he added.

Dzaiddin said this in response to a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim who was reported by a Malay daily yesterday to have instructed the court to dispose of the huge backlog of 144,800 civil cases.

He said the figure quoted by Rais was not all backlog cases because some were active cases but whose trial was held up for various reasons like failure of summons service, filing of supporting documents and adjournment for out-of-court settlement.

Well done

"I have to clarify this because if the public reads the report, they will be alarmed with the number of the so-called backlog of cases when in actual fact the magistrate courts have done well in disposing of civil cases," he said.

He said the disposal of cases would improve when the 27 judicial officer vacancies are filled, adding that the Judicial and Legal Service Commission was recruiting a new intake of magistrates.

"For example, last year there was a backlog of 400,000 traffic cases at the magistrate courts. But the figure was reduced to as low as 290,000 when we increased the number of magistrates," he said.

The disposal of civil cases and appeals at the Sessions Court, Court of Appeal and the Federal Court have also outnumbered the new cases filed at the respective courts, he said.

Dzaiddin also assured the public that the judiciary is always open to suggestions from any parties to improve the administration of justice



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