De facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz has defended the recent appointment of 22-year-old Kelantan princess Tengku Amalin A'ishah Putri as a magistrate. She is the youngest magistrate in the country.

M Kula Segaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) has questioned the appointment during his debate on the Budget 2007 last week as this contradicted the Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim's statement that a magistrate must possess five years' experience before appointment.

"It is true that it is the judiciary's aim to place those with experience as a magistrate but this aim cannot be implemented immediately. It has to be implemented in stages," said Nazri in a written reply received by Kula Segaran today.

"Those without or lacking in experience will be placed in courts which have senior court officers that can assist or guide them (the inexperienced magistrates)," the minister in the Prime Minister's Department added. A copy of the reply was made available to malaysiakini .

Kula Segaran has also claimed the princess was yet to be conferred her bachelor's degree when the appointment was made.

On this, Nazri said for those who have yet been conferred a degree, they can be placed as magistrates on contract basis if they have fulfilled other criteria stipulated by the judiciary services commission.

Tengku Amalin, who is Sultan Ismail Petra's only daughter, graduated from the International Islamic University in May with a bachelor's degree in Law and was appointed as a magistrate in Kelantan in June.

The princess, who turned 22 a week after her appointment, is also the first woman to hold the post in the state and is the youngest in the country to hold such a post.

That honour was previously held by Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak, a former lord president, who was 23 when he was appointed a magistrate.

CJ's study tour

The Ipoh Barat MP has also questioned the purpose the chief justice's recent visit to the Scandinavian countries and China which have a different legal system compared to ours.

On top of that, no report on the findings of the visits have been furnished, claimed the MP.

Responding to this, Nazri said the visits to the Scandinavian countries was meant to study the legal and judiciary system in those countries in order to enact an uniform civil procedure rules.

On the visit to China, Nazri it was on the invitation of the Chinese government.

"It was not only meant to enhance the ties of the judiciary in the two countries but it is also meant to give the (Malaysian) delegation an exposure to the (Chinese) legal and judiciary system," he said, adding that all the visits were done to enhance the Malaysian judiciary system.

In a related development, Nazri told Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) and Wong Nai Chee (BN-Kota Melaka) that it was not necessary to review the 1988 judicial crisis as the report from a tribunal then had been accepted by the King.

"However, if there is new information or important facts in the case, the government is prepared to consider the suggestion (to re-examine the 1988 crisis)," he said in a separate reply to the duo.