A move to censure the police force for the deaths in police custody as well as by police shootings will be among the motions that will be tabled at the Bar Council's annual general meeting (AGM) this Saturday.

The resolution, proposed by P Uthayakumar, calls the Bar to caution and censure the police for the "merciless killings, assaults and deaths in police lock-ups and incidents of police brutalities".

The proposal said the Bar viewed with grave concern the illegal and unlawful shooting deaths in the country.

"The police is urged to stop these unlawful shootings to death of individuals and to abide by the federal constitution and the rule of law," said Uthayakumar in his proposed resolution.

Another motion that will be proposed is one by the council for the compulsory subscription fee to be fixed at different levels.

Pay for non-participation

The proposal calls for the division of the lawyers into two groups, class A involving those who had attended the meeting and class B for the absentees. Lawyers who fail to turn up at the AGM will have to pay an increased amount of RM1,000 for annual subscription and other fees, as opposed to the RM650 paid by the others.

The proposal is mooted to encourage members to take an active interest in the affairs of the Bar and to participate in the AGM.

"Members can choose to stay away from a general meeting and pay a higher subscription to offset the cost of the adjourned meetings. General meetings of the Bar are extremely costly," read the motion which is found in the 2000/2001 Bar Council annual report.

The 55th AGM requires a quorum of 1,931 lawyers, or one-fifth of the total number of 9,653 members for it to proceed. It is quite common for the Bar to cancel its meetings due to lack of quorum. Two meetings slated to be held last year was also cancelled due to this problem.

Debate on settlements

One other motion that will be put to the floor involves the question of whether the Bar should settle a suit brought by lawyer K Rajasegaran to stop a meeting in 1999 to discuss matters pertaining to the judiciary.

Last Saturday the High Court asked the council and Rajasegaran to bury the hatchet and try to settle the suit. Justice RK Nathan made the plea on the day he was supposed to have decided on the suit.

Rajasegaran had sued the Malaysian Bar, the Bar Council and its then chairman RR Chelvarajah seeking a permanent injunction to restrain the Bar from holding an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that was to have been held on Nov 20, 1999. The meeting was planned to discuss, among others, the integrity of the judiciary.

Nathan also asked the Rajasegaran to consider withdrawing his other suit against the Bar and 11 council members to stop another EGM to discuss a similar matter scheduled for June 23 last year.

The suit claimed that the defendants had committed sedition and contempt of court for deciding to discuss the allegations of judicial misconduct by former chief justice Eusoff Chin. Nathan said that since Eusoff has retired, the matter was no longer an issue.

Following this, council chairman Sulaiman Abdullah said the Bar will draft a motion for its members to debate in the forthcoming AGM.

Other motions include one calling for the lawyers to restore the honour of the profession.