The Kuala Lumpur High Court today dismissed a law suit against the Legal Profession Qualifying Board which claimed that it acted in bad faith in annulling and regrading last year's Certificate in Legal Practise examination results.

In dismissing the suit, Justice Arifin Zakaria said he was not of the opinion that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board had made the decision to annul and re-grade the CLP examination lightly.

"From the conduct of the board as disclosed by the board secretary Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad in the affidavit, I am of the view the board is far from casual or cavalier in its attitude," he said.

"The board may of course be criticised for approving and endorsing the July examination results as presented to it by its director Khalid Yusof, but this should not have any bearing on the subsequent action of the board," he added.

Counsel Karpal Singh, acting for plaintiff Chan Kwai Chun, told reporters that he would be making an application on Monday for an urgent appeal on the matter.

'Not well defined'

Justice Arifin also pointed out that the case had been filed using an unclear section of the Legal Profession Act.

"The question is, what are the orders that may be made under this act to review the board's decision? That is not well defined," Arifin said.

The judge said that the applicant should have filed her suit under the more specific Special Relief Act.

Justice Arifin decision will also apply to 15 other similar suits filed by disgruntled CLP students which sought to review the board's decision to annul and re-grade the marks of the CLP examination last year.

The students, who failed the exam after the re-grading exercise, wanted the court to reverse the board's decision and order it to maintain the marks awarded before the re-grading exercise.

Arifin also said that it was not for him to pass judgement on Khalid's conduct for alleged mark tampering.

"I think that we must bear in mind that this court is not sitting in judgement over the conduct of Khalid and therefore I would not pass judgement on that.

"The issue before us is whether the decision of the board is justified in the circumstances of the this case," he said.

Marks tampering

The board, comprising former attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid, Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail, Bar Council chairman Mah Weng Kwai and academic Shamsuddin Shukor, created a storm when they annulled the CLP results in mid-November following evidence that exam papers had leaked.

Two weeks later, the board announced that the papers would be re-graded due to marks tampering supposedly done when marks from the answer sheets were transferred onto a master sheet to be presented to and endorsed by the board.

Half the number of candidates who initially passed the examination were failed after the re-grading exercise. Many will retake the exam on Monday.

Board director Khalid Yusof has been suspended from his position and police investigations into his role in the affair were launched and have since been concluded.

'Act fast'

Arifin also agreed with the board's action in revoking the examination results before police investigations were complete then.

"As the board has stated in its affidavit, time was of the essence and it had to act fast in order to put matters to rest,' Arifin said.

The CLP is a required examination for foreign law graduates wanting to practise in Malaysia. It comprises five papers, criminal procedure, evidence, tort, professional practise and the general paper. The paper is reputedly difficult to pass.