Court wants CJ to reply to challenge by Karpal's daughter

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today asked Chief Justice Richard Malanjum to file an affidavit-in-reply to lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo's challenge for not taking action on two complaints involving the judiciary.

Justice Mohd Firuz Jaffril made the order to senior federal counsel Mazlifah Ayob, who appeared for the chief justice.

The judge asked that the affidavit-in-reply be filed in response to Sangeet's application and her supporting affidavit, on or before Feb 11, which he also fixed for case management.

Justice Firuz also ruled that Sangeet's legal challenge would be heard in his court, which would act as a civil court and not as the Special Appellate Powers Division court which normally hears judicial review cases.

Sangeet appeared for herself today in the matter, with the proceedings being carried out in open court.

Earlier this week, the lawyer, who is the late Karpal Singh's daughter, had filed a legal challenge against the CJ, in which she sought several declarations.

These are:

• A declaration that the CJ had failed to protect and defend the integrity of the judiciary with regard to her father's sedition case and an allegation made by a Court of Appeal judge;
  
  
• A declaration that she is entitled to have information regarding the internal probe conducted on two cases as a person who had had her rights affected and her expectation of an impartial judiciary free from interference; and
  
  
• A declaration that the CJ has failed in his constitutional and statutory duty to preserve the integrity of the judiciary with regards to the two matters.

The first of the two matters referred to above is the late Karpal's sedition case, where the appellate court upheld the conviction but reduced the fine imposed from RM4,000 to RM1,800.

This follows the claim by lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla that the bench initially wanted to acquit Karpal (photo), only to be told by a senior judge that the conviction is to be upheld.

The second matter pertains to the claim made by Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer that he was reprimanded several years ago by a senior judge following his dissenting judgment in the M Indira Gandhi case.

Hamid Sultan revealed the matter during an international law conference last year.

On Nov 28 last year, Justice Malanjum issued a statement saying that the internal investigations into the two issues have been suspended, along with the hearing of Karpal's appeal in the Federal Court.

Such actions, Sangeet claimed, were done in bad faith and were also bad in law.

In her affidavit in support, Sangeet said there has not been any development since Nov 28 over the matters and hence she wanted to know the outcome of the internal investigations.

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