A company has asked for an appeal at the Federal Court to be re-heard on the basis that a senior judge had committed plagiarism in a judgment delivered on Jan 5.

palace of justice istana kehakiman In a notice of motion filed by See Teow Chuan Holdings Sdn Bhd, the estate of Seah Ah Keoh@ Seah Yeo and 12 others claimed that the grounds of judgment are largely a reproduction of a written submission by Ooi Woon Chee, the first respondent.

The application for the re-hearing was filed on Feb 13, by the firm of VK Lingam & Co.

The applicants claimed that 56 paragraphs running into 47 pages had been copied substantially without any attribution to Ooi.

They also said the written submission was heavily biased in favour of Ooi and the second respondent Ng Kim Tuck, in a dispute involving the Kian Joo Can company.

"Therefore the Federal Court, by reproducing substantially the contents of the respondents’ written submission as its grounds of judgment, had taken a one-sided and biased view of the appeals before the Federal Court."

"The Federal Court panel, in its grounds of judgment, never considered at all the arguments submitted by the applicants’ counsel.

“The unattributed copying of the respondent’s submission .... clearly undermines the very integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. It further undermines public confidence in the judiciary that justice will be administered fairly and justly that all parties will be treated equally and fairly.”

For this reason, they want the matter to be re-heard and finally disposed of by a different panel, other than those who have heard and decided the appeals.

The Jan 5 decision in favour of the respondents, who are the liquidators of Kian Joo Holdings Sdn Bhd, has resulted in the proposed sale of 146,131,500 shares.

The applicants want the respondents to be restrained from distributing RM241 million from the sale of the shares.

The applicants have also named Can-One International Sdn Bhd as respondents. The company won the purchase of 32.9 percent stake in Kian Joo in 2009.