There is nothing wrong with reappointing retired judges because their expertise was still needed, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim.

"This was done because we don't want their talent and experience to go to waste," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Razali was replying to a question by M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) who questioned the need to reappoint judges after they had reached their mandatory retirement age.

Kulasegaran had cited the case of Federal Court judge Jeffrey Tan, who was initially offered a six-month contract extension and eventually a two-year contract.

Justice Tan retired in November 2015 after completing the first contract. The second contract took effect in September 2016.

Kulasegaran also demanded that Razali weigh in on speculation that three outgoing top judges will receive offers to have their contracts extended by two years.

According to Kulasegaran, the trio are Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria, Court of Appeal president Raus Sharif and Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin.

Minister unaware of rumours

It was reported in September 2016 that the trio's tenure was first extended for six months.

Arifin's term would end by tomorrow while Md Raus's was supposed to retire on Feb 4. Zulkefli's tenure was supposed to expire on March 28.

Razali, however, claimed to be in the dark on the rumours.

"I don't know and I am not privy to that. This is under the Judicial Appointments Commission, it is an independent body," he said.

When contacted, Kulasegaran said the government should not only consider reappoint retired judges, as the country has more than enough capable lawyers, to be appointed as judges.

Meanwhile, Razali revealed that there was close to 60,000 outstanding cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

This included 1,050 civil and criminal cases in the Federal Court, 2,281 civil cases and 769 criminal cases in the Court of Appeal and 51,697 civil cases and 3,863 criminal cases in the High Court.