THE Attorney-General’s Chambers wants large parts of judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer’s explosive affidavit on alleged impropriety of the judiciary to be expunged.

Senior federal counsel Suzana Atan said the AGC wants the details removed as they were “contemptuous, scandalous, and scurrilous attack on the judiciary”.

The AGC filed the application on March 7.

“The court has set April 3 to allow the applicant (lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo) to file an affidavit-in-reply (against the AGC’s expungement bid),” Suzana told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning.

Court of Appeal judge Hamid’s affidavit, filed on February 14, was in support of Sangeet’s suit against the chief justice.

Sangeet is seeking a declaration that the chief justice – not named in her originating summons – had failed to defend the integrity and credibility of the judiciary when he did not complete investigations relating to two allegations of judicial interference.

Suzana said the application was made under Order 41 Rule 5(1) and 6 of the Rules of Courts.

Rule 5(1) states that an affidavit may contain only such facts as the deponent is able of his own knowledge to prove while Rule 6 states that the court may order to be struck out of any affidavit, any matter which is scandalous, irrelevant or otherwise oppressive.

The April 3 case management date was decided in-chambers by Justice Mohd Firuz Jaffril.

Sangeet told reporters outside the court that she had received the application by the AGC and will decide by April 3 on how to proceed.

“I will take a position on that in terms of law whether it is right to expunge. In any event his (Hamid’s) own solicitors are coming onboard to respond to that,” she said.

Sangeet added that she is still awaiting word from the AGC regarding the announcement of a royal commission of inquiry last month to look into the allegations by Hamid.

“Thereafter, I’ve not heard anything on the terms of reference or anything like that. So I’m hoping to write to the honourable A-G to get a status on this RCI. Find out what is happening and when it is likely to be convened before I decide on the direction of this matter,” Sangeet added.

Hamid’s lawyer, Haniff Khatri Abdulla said that he and co-counsel Joy Wilson Appukuttan may apply to act as interveners. They were acting as watching brief today.

“The court has given us three weeks until April 3 for us to take instructions. (We may) make another application for the court to determine whether we should be allowed to intervene since the AGC is applying to strike out our client’s affidavit and is seeking costs against him. The court would have to decide that.

“What is important is that we would like the AGC to immediately inform the public the terms of reference,” he said.

The RCI was announced on February 20 by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. – March 13, 2019.