The Legal Profession Qualifying Board today failed more than half the students who had passed their main Certificate of Legal Practice examination in July and the supplementary October examination.

At a press conference today, the board also said that it would leave it to the police to investigate the alleged tampering of the examination results which led to the regrading exercise.

It was revealed yesterday that a substantial number of irregularities was discovered between the marks awarded by the examiners and the marks disclosed by LPQB director Khalid Yusoff to board members.

Chairman of the board and outgoing attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid announced this afternoon that after the regrading process, the total number of passes is now 119, while 170 are conditional passes and 633 failures.

Before the exams were regraded yesterday, the number of passes was 232. The board failed 113 students after it counter-checked the original answer sheets with the master sheet presented by Khalid to board members.

"We have transferred the marks from the answer sheets to the master sheet. These are the genuine marks. The marks that appeared from the earlier master sheet were not the authentic marks. They were either pushed up or pushed down," Ainum told reporters at the board's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Director solely responsible

However, Ainum told reporters that Khalid, as LPQB director, was solely responsible for presenting the master results sheet to the five-member board.

"The director is responsible for giving instructions in putting the marks onto the master sheet ," Ainum said.

When asked if police reports had been lodged against Khalid, Ainum said, "we leave it to the police".

Khalid, who is not a member of board, was not present at the press conference.

When asked if Khalid would be sacked or his position reviewed, Ainum said that they have yet to make a decision.

"We are looking at the role and function of the director," Ainum said without elaborating.

Regarding allegations of similar leaks in past exams, Ainum merely said that the current board comprised of those who were not board members in previous years.

Pain and anger

Over 200 students who were at the board's headquarters today reacted with a mix of anguish and anger. They met with board members later in the afternoon and some were seen crying.

"Why didn't they tell me that I had failed earlier instead of now?" said a student who was failed after the regrading.

Another outraged student slammed the board for being aware of the leaks but failed to take prompt action.

The board nullified the examination results of the five-paper July CLP exam and the October supplementary exam after it was discovered that questions had been leaked to candidates.

The CLP is a requirement for foreign law graduates to be able to practise law in Malaysia. It is known for its low pass rates of no more than 30 percent.

Bar Council president Mah Weng Kwai, who is a board member and heads a committee to investigate the leaks, told reporters that a detailed report would be released soon.

"In the future in order to improve, we would have to look at the scripts ourselves and various spot checks have to be done," Mah said