Kit Siang questions foul play among judges
DAP elder asks if former CJ Eusoffe Chin took revenge by twice denying judge’s promotion
(Free Malaysia Today) – Questionable dealings among judges were aired after a former judge resurrected a controversial 1995 dispute over company shares, prompting the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang to demand an explanation from the chief justice, Ariffin Zakaria.
Lim asked whether a vengeful former chief justice, Eusoffe Chin, had twice blocked the promotion of an appeal court judge who stood up to him.
In a statement today Lim demanded an explanation from the current chief justice, Ariffin Zakaria, who heads the Judicial Appointments Commission, which decides on appointments to the three superior courts.
Lim said Ariffin should explain whether the controversial Ayer Molek v Insas case of 1995 was one reason for Justice Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus (pic) being twice by-passed and denied elevation to the Federal Court.
Lim wanted to know if Justice Hishamuddin’s promotions were thwarted by Eusoffe Chin exacting vengeance on the judge, who had declared as invalid a decision by a superior three-man federal court bench headed by Chin.
Justice Hishamudin had ruled that the bench of Chin, an appeal court judge, and a high court judge, was improperly set up because the third judge, Pajan Singh Gill, was not legally competent to sit on the federal court bench as he was only a high court judge at the time.
Lim also referred to an article by retired appeal judge Justice K.C. Vohrah last year that Chin had tried to influence an unnamed appeal court judge who was about to hear a shares dispute between the Ayer Molek Rubber Company and Insas Bhd in 1995.
In the article, published in a Court of Appeal 20th anniversary booklet last year, Justice Vohrah had stated that Eusoff had called the judge into his chambers before the appeal was heard and when the judge entered, the CJ pointed to a pile of files on his table. “He (Eusoff) said the papers were related to the Ayer Molek case and he (the CJ) indicated that the appeal had no merit,” Malaysiakini quoted Vohrah as saying.
