The annual gathering of legal minds at the event previously called the Opening of the Legal Year has now been renamed as the "Opening of the Judicial Year" (Pembukaan Tahun Kehakiman).

This year’s event at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre saw Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif delivering the sole speech, hence the change in name.

The event has been held annually since 2010 to mark the start of the new legal year, when then chief justice Zaki Azmi opted to have a gathering of the judges, Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and Malaysian Bar Council similar to that practised in the UK.

However, the office bearers of the Malaysian Bar were notably absent today, as the Bar Council had decided to boycott the event.

Despite this, former chief justice Arifin Zakaria, senior lawyers such as Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Bastian Vendargon, Darryl Goon, and Hisyam Teh Poh Teik along with former Malaysian Bar presidents Ragunath Kesavan and Lim Chee Wee were present.

Also present were Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said and attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali. Neither of them gave a speech.

Attendees also included office bearers from the Advocates Association of Sarawak and the Sabah Law Society, as well as several judges from Indonesia and Singapore.

While past Legal Year events saw a procession of office bearers of the Malaysian Bar, the AG, members of the AG's Chambers, the deputy registrars and registrars of court and then the judges, this year's Judicial Year event saw only a procession of the judges.

They comprised of the judges of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court and then the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum, Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Ma'arop and the Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif.

This was then followed by a multimedia presentation of the judiciary in past years, after which there was a solitary speech by Justice Raus, unlike the previous years in which there were speeches by the president of the Malaysian Bar, the AG and then the CJ.