The Legal Profession Qualifying Board today said its decisions on appeals from the July Certificate in Legal Practice examination candidates were final, adding that there would be no more meetings regarding the results.

The board also revealed that CLP examination director Khalid Yusoff was suspended since yesterday. However, he was only issued a suspension letter this morning.

"Today is the last meeting. We have finished our work, we are not going to meet (on the results) anymore," said Attorney-General Ainum Mohd Saaid who also chairs the board.

Ainum was speaking to reporters after the six-member board met at the Federal Court's building in Kuala Lumpur.

Asked if the board expects any appeals by students against today's decision, board secretary Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad said as far as the board was concerned the matter was resolved.

On Khalid's suspension, Abdul Wahab said the ruling would stand indefinitely until a review committee set up by the board completes its investigation into the charge of marks tampering.

Yesterday, Khalid and two junior clerks were quizzed by police regarding the marks tampering.

Following the much-anticipated suspension, board member and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Assoc Prof Shamsuddin Suhor was appointed as the administrator to supervise the upcoming January 2002 Supplementary Examination.

Shamsuddin will also assist in the implementation of any suggestions by the review committee to improve the conduct of future CLP examinations once the suggestions are endorsed by the board.

The review committee is headed by board member and Bar Council chairperson Mah Weng Kwai.

On calls that all board members should resign following the CLP fiasco, Abdul Wahab who is the Federal Court's chief registrar said, "We can't, we are on the board by virtue of statutory provision."

Under the Legal Profession Act, the board is headed by the attorney-general with the Federal Court's chief registrar as the secretary. Other members include the Malaysian Bar Council chairperson, a Federal Court judge, a High Court judge, and a law faculty dean.

Apart from Ainum, Mah, Abdul Wahab and Shamsuddin; the other two board members are Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob and High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail.

'Fortuitous'

The CLP double controversy unravelled when the board nullified the July examination results on Nov 12 after it confirmed that the papers had leaked. The annulment met with strong protests from some 900 affected students.

Following this, the board embarked on marathon meetings to decide on the matter, in a surprising turn-of-events revealed that original marks on answer scripts had been adjusted on the master sheet compiled and tabled by Khalid.

It decided last Tuesday to release new results which rectified the "substantial irregularities". The total number of students who scored clear passes was slashed by almost half from 232 to119 after the correction.

In a statement released later, the board said the latest grades were based on the actual marks given by the examiners and there would be no remarking of any scripts.

The board also reiterated that it was "fortuitous" for the board to expose the problems rather than ignore it.

This was to overhaul the conduct of the whole examination and to enhance the future of the legal profession, it added.

"The public interest in ensuring that only qualified persons are allowed into the legal profession outweighs the inconvenience to candidates, and the board has gone to great lengths to alleviate such inconvenience," read the statement.

Final decisions

On some 300 appeals from candidates dissatisfied with their new results, the final decisions made by the board today are as follows:

  • Any candidate who failed the July main examination may choose to resit for the whole examination or to carry forward any credits to the next main examination (which means the candidate need not repeat all five subjects);

  • Should one fail in one or more subjects in the next examination, the candidate would fail the entire examination and cannot carry any credits into any subsequent examination. The candidate must then sit for the remaining failed papers in one examination;

  • Any candidate who failed in the Evidence paper and hence obtained a conditional pass in the July main examination but failed in another paper upon regrading, shall be allowed to resit in both papers in one examination;

  • Should one fail in either of the two papers, the candidate would then fail the entire examination and cannot carry forward any credits into any subsequent examination;

  • The July CLP examination is excluded from the four attempts allowed to a candidate;

  • Candidates as mentioned above are exempted from any examination fee;

  • Financial assistance will be rendered to candidates who were affected by the nullification of the Evidence paper in the October supplementary tests, and may resit for that particular paper on Jan 21 next year;

  • They will be given transport allowance for attending the examination from home address to Kuala Lumpur and back - bus fare as charged by the Transnasional and Plusliner coaches for peninsular candidates, and economy return air fare as charged by Malaysian Airlines from East Malaysia and Brunei; and

  • The candidates will also be given subsistence allowance of RM90 per day and tuition fees of a flat rate of RM100.