Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria has announced that effective this month, all criminal and civil appeals in the Federal Court would be heard by a five-man quorum.

He said the changes made to the number of judges sitting on the panel to hear the appeals was aimed at improving the quality of judgments and decisions.

The chief justice made the announcement in his speech at the Opening of the Legal Year 2012 held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) in Putrajaya today.

Arifin said, effective March this year, leave to appeal applications would also be heard by the Federal Court's five-member panel, instead of the usual three-man panel.

Previously, appeals at the Federal Court were heard by a three-man panel.

However, it was left to the court's discretion whether to constitute a five-man panel or nine-man panel to hear selective appeals, particularly when involving complex constitutional issues.

In his elevation speech last September, Arifin pledged to continue enhancing the efficiency of the judiciary at all levels and improve the quality of the courts' decisions.

Arifin admitted in his speech today that those tasks (to enhance the judiciary's efficiency and improve the quality of the courts' decisions) were not easy.

"Our objective is to transform our judiciary into a world-class judiciary. To realise this, we require the cooperation of all stakeholders, namely, the Attorney-General's Chambers, members of the Bar, government departments and agencies," he said.

About 700 guests comprising lawyers, judicial officers and legal officers from the Attorney-General's Chambers attended the legal year ceremony.

Three chief justices from Asean countries - Singapore chief justice Chan Sek Keong, Indonesia's Supreme Court head Dr Harifin A Tumpa and Brunei Darussalam chief justice Kifrawi Kifli - and Malaysia's former chief justice Zaki Azmi were also present.

Emphasis on environmental cases

In his speech, Arifin asserted that the judiciary would place emphasis on environmental cases.

The chief justice said the judiciary had an important role to play with regard to environmental concern because more than half of the country's land were forested area - equivalent to about 60 per cent or 19.52 million hectares of forested land.

Arifin said environmental crime was a threat and the judiciary must be serious in protecting Mother Earth and not let any lack of sensitivity in the past to continue into the future.

He said judges and judicial officers would be provided more exposure and training on environmental law.

"If need be, specialised courts will be set up to handle environmental cases to create awareness among members of the public on the importance of the environment," he said.

Citing two case which Arifin said demonstrated the lack of sensitivity was a case of a man who was fined only RM7,000 by the magistrate's court in Tumpat, Kelantan in 2005, his home state, for illegal possession of a dead tiger.

He said the man walked out a free man after he paid the fine.

Arifin contrasted this to another case of theft of 11 cans of Tiger beer and Guinness Stout where a five-year jail sentence was meted out.

- Bernama