Court documents must be in English in Sabah and Sarawak

(The Star) – Sabah and Sarawak is not affected by the Court of Appeals decision to strike out Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal case because it was not drafted in Bahasa Malaysia.

Sabah Justices of Peace Council secretary Datuk Lawrence Thien said the position for the two states was different as it was not a requirement to file such documents in the national language.

“The position is the opposite in Sabah and Sarawak where any document filed in the courts shall be written in the English language (and may be accompanied by a translation in the national language) as required by the Rules of the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court,” he said Friday.

Thien was commenting on the Court of Appeals decision to strike out Anwar’s appeal on the Oct 20 decision by Justice Abdul Malek Ishak in his RM100mil defamation suit against former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with costs.

Thien said Section 8 of the National Language Acts 1963/1967 provided for all court proceedings (other than the giving of evidence by a witness in the courts) to be in the national language.

However, the court under the provisions of Section 8 may in the interest of justice order the proceedings to be partly in the national language and partly in English.

“Under the Rule 102 of the Rules of the Court of Appeal non-compliance with any of the rules (including Rule 101 for court documents to be in the national language) shall not render the proceedings void,” he said.

“This will be the case where great inconvenience or injustice will follow as a result of requiring strict compliance with the Rules of Court,” he added.

The Court of Appeal in Anwar’s decision, as reported in the media did not appear to have considered the provisions to Section 8 and Rule 102, he added.