The Legal Qualifying Profession Board acted in bad faith by adopting a 'cavalier' attitude in annulling last year's Certificate in Legal Practice examinations, the Kuala Lumpur High Court was told today.

"What is important to know is that the board did not lodge a report or did anything until Nov 27. The board came to know of the matter much earlier on Nov 10," said Karpal Singh who is representing CLP students in a series of suits against the LPQB.

He added that LPQB secretary Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad had earlier lodged a report on Nov 12 on allegations of examination papers leakage.

"Why did they (the board) did not wait until police investigations could be completed before regrading the marks?" Karpal told justice Arifin Zakaria.

Last November, the five-member LPQB came under fire following its decision to annul the examination results of the July CLP exam and the October supplementary exam after it was discovered that questions had been leaked to candidates.

In addition to the leakage, it was also revealed that the marks had been tampered with, forcing the board to regrade the papers.

The board held CLP examination director Khalid Yusof responsible for the irregularities in the results. Khalid, who has been with the board since 1993, is currently suspended and is under police investigation.

The members of the board at the time of the controversy consisted of former attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid, Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail, Bar Council chairperson Mah Weng Kwai and academic Shamsuddin Suhor.

'Lame duck'

Karpal added that the LPQB was avoiding responsibility for the controversy by painting itself as a 'lame duck' which had no knowledge of Khalid's activities.

"They (the board) are relying on condemnations of their own employee stating that Khalid was responsible.

"But if a principle condemns its own agent and comes to court to defend itself, it is sowing the seeds of destruction in itself, and the seeds must explode," he said.

He also lambasted the board for taking at face value the master list presented to them by Khalid.

"From the time the master list was presented to the board, they have been 'mesmerised' by Khalid.

"How can these prominent personalities accept - lock, stock and barrel - what is presented to them? They have been both indecisive and incompetent, and the students cannot be penalised for this," Karpal said.

Khalid was in charge of transferring marks from answer slips into a master list which the board would later accept and endorse.

Could not wait

In reply, the LPQB's legal counsel Zaki Tun Azmi said that at the onset of police investigations, the board had to hand over certain documents.

These documents could not be returned until the police investigations are completed, and as such the board did not wait to take action.

"The result and the details of the investigations are not available to us or anybody, therefore the board carried out its own investigation irrespective of what the police find.

"To wait for the police may result in breaching the police investigations. Even now we cannot gain access to documents from the police," Zaki said.

He also said that Khalid was acting on his own and never reported his activities to the board.

Zaki added that the function of the board is to ensure that candidates pass the CLP before being allowed to practise.

"Can you imagine 300-over unqualified lawyers running around this court house? The decision was made in the public interest and not in the interest of individual lawyers.

"They only would have been said to have acted in a 'cavalier' fashion if they allowed the students to pass, but they were responsible enough to not have taken a chin chai (Cantonese for 'lackadaisical') attitude and let the public suffer later on," Zaki said.

Snide remarks

Zaki's statements were met with snide remarks and subdued jeers from a number of dissatisfied CLP students who were present in the courtroom.

"If the students are truly qualified why are they so reluctant to retake the examination? If you are intelligent, take the exam and pass it. I know there are stress and pressure but those are separate matters," he continued.

Students are scheduled to retake the CLP examinations in less than two weeks, on Jan 21.

The board failed more than half the students who had originally 'passed', changing the results to 119 passes, 170 conditional passes and 633 failures.

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

The students are also represented by Jagdip Singh Deo and Ram Karpal Singh. Besides Zaki, the LPQB is represented by Alvin John and Harjinder Kaur.

The hearing continues on Saturday at 10am.