STOPPING political interference in judicial appointments is one of the aims of the institutional reform committee which met today.

“The last thing we want is political interference or executive interference with the judiciary. What needs to be done is to get the right people as judges,” retired Court of Appeal judge KC Vohrah said today.

Retired Court of Appeal judge Mah Weng Kwai, National Patriots Association president Brig Jen (Rtd) Mohamed Arshad Raji, Professor of Law at Universiti Malaya Shad Saleem Faruqi and Hakam president Ambiga Sreenevasan were the other committee members convened today.

Vohrah said the committee would study the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), which was made up of five senior court judges led by Chief Justice Raus Sharif and three members who are retired judges.

“At the moment, the JAC is very top heavy. Can you imagine, to select judges you have a top heavy group of people making decisions. (Four) judges sitting on the commission and you’ve got five others who are mostly retired judges.

“Would you think they won’t pay deference to the chief (justice) who would say ‘I want this, I want that. Something has to be done.”

As an example of how the JAC should be, Vohrah pointed to the English judicial system, where the JAC is led by a non-lawyer and consists of mostly “lay people”.

Mah said it was important for lawyers be included in the commission.

“Because lawyers, they are the consumers of the court system. They go to court every day. They know who are the good judges and who are the not-so-good judges. So have the president of the (Malaysian) Bar, for example, in the commission, that’s very good.”

Vohrah earlier said role the prime minister played in the current appointments process had “created a lot of problems”: “If you submit names to the prime minister, the prime minister has the right to say ‘I don’t want’.”

“Well, he doesn’t say he doesn’t want. He says, ‘Send me more names’.”

“That’s like rejecting the people who are being put up. You know there are many judges who are exemplary in their work but who are not being promoted. That’s something we want to prevent.”

He said the English judiciary system required reason for rejection.

Vohrah said constitutionally, the power of appointment was vested in the prime minister after consultation with the relevant judge or the chief justice and after consultation with the Conference of Rulers.

“That might need amendment.” – May 16, 2018.