'Agong should delay swearing in of CJ, appellant court president till their appt legality confirmed'

Focus Malaysia

23-07-2025

LAWYER Charles Hector has called on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) to delay the July 28 swearing in ceremony of Chief Justice-appoint Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh and Court of Appeal president Datuk Abu Bakar Jais pending confirmation that their appointments are law abiding.
Hector who is also a human rights activist further contended that the crux of the matter is that Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim 'may have ignored the recommendations of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to get his own choice of judges to be appointed'.
'If later, it is found that the appointments were illegal for failure to strictly comply with the law, then Wan Farid, Abu Bakar and even Datuk Azizah Nawawi who was appointed as Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak may be embarrassed unnecessarily,' he penned on his latest blog.
'It is best to be duly sure before proceeding with the appointment.'
Since, the enactment of the JAC Act 2009, Hector stressed that the Parliament has decided that the sitting PM will have no absolute discretion with regard to appointment of judges.
In other words, the PM is restricted from viewing the vetted names of candidates who have been approved and recommended by the JAC.
This has to do with the earlier controversies sparked by the Lingam Tape Scandal 2007 which was coincidentally exposed by PMX himself in his then capacity as the de facto PKR president.
In a nutshell, the scandal revealed that external parties could and may have influenced the appointment of judges or even the judges that heard certain cases. As solution to the issue, the JAC Act 2009 was tabled.
'The JAC will as soon as a vacancy is apparent start working to identify persons/judges whom they will recommend to the PM who will then advise the Agong to appoint,' stressed Hector who is also the co-founder of NGO Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET).
'As the JAC would reasonably act FAST so we don't end up with a vacancy (or a prolonged vacancy), was it PMX who delayed the appointment process after having received the JAC's recommendations?
'Did he fail to advice the Agong to appoint judges when vacancies arise?'
On this note, Hector pointed to the following:
The nine-month delay in appointing a new Chief Judge of the High Court of Malaya;
The delay that caused unfilled vacancies of judges in the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Federal Court (more than 29 + 2 vacancies); and
The delay in the appointment of the Chief Justice and Court of Appeal president, both of whom had retired by July 2.
'Did PMX ignore the recommendation of the JAC which would reasonably have been made way before the CJ retired (given that there was 16-17 days delay before the appointment of Wan Farid and Abu Bakar),' queried Hector.
'Did PMX cause another JAC to sit thereafter to make new recommendations which may be a breach of the JAC Act 2009?
'Amid these many uncertainties, it's best that ALL these doubts be resolved before the Agong appoints the new Chief Justice or appellant court president.' – July 23, 2025
Main image credit: Media Perpaduan