Jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim today lodged a formal complaint against High Court judge Arifin Jaka to the Chief Judge of High Court Malaya, Wan Adnan Wan Ismail.

The complaint was lodged in regard to Arifin's inordinate delay in giving his notes of proceedings from Anwar's sodomy trial.

Anwar's counsel Sankara Nair delivered the letter of complaint which was handwritten by Anwar himself to Wan Adnan's office this morning. A copy of the letter was also forwarded to Chief Justice Mohamad Dzaiddin Abdullah.

Sankara told reporters later that the judge's delay had unduly delayed Anwar's appeal to the Court of Appeal.

"Our client wants his case to be heard by the Court of Appeal as soon as possible and since the notes of the proceedings are not ready, we can't proceed with our appeal process.

"We are also very concerned that our client's health is steadily deteriorating and side effects from long-term drug abuse is most apparent. His doctors have expressed concern that surgery cannot be put off indefinitely, hence the urgent need that his appeal is heard without undue delay," Sankara said.

He added that he received the written judgment of the trial on June 14, after sending two letters to Arifin.

"The judge gave us his written judgment after I wrote two letters to him on May 23 and June 13. He told us then that the notes of evidence were being compiled and would give them to us soon.

"However, we have yet to receive the notes and I can't file the petition of appeal without it," Sankara said, adding that he had only 10 days to file the petition after receiving the notes of evidence.

He filed the notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal on Aug 11 last year, three days after Arifin had sentenced Anwar to nine years in jail after finding him guilty of sodomy.

The judge's code of ethics stipulate that judges must deliver their written judgment containing their grounds of judgment within six weeks of delivering their decision.

Anwar is also serving a six-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh prison for abuse of power.