CHIEF Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said proposed reforms to relax procedural hindrances on environmental proceedings and the limitation of certain appeals have passed the committee stage and are being formalised.

In her keynote address to open the national colloquium on access to justice, in Kuching, she said the proposal to insert a provision in the Rules of Court 2012 to facilitate environmental litigation “not only relaxes the locus standi rule, but it also caters for specific remedies such as enabling the grant of Environmental Protection Orders”.

“These sort of orders serve to compel or enjoin any person, entity or government agency to perform or desist from performing an act in order to protect, preserve or rehabilitate the environment.

“This ensures not only the right to access courts, but that the remedy afforded is potent and effective,” she said.

On the limitation of certain appeals, Maimun said the change to the rules of court was important as it will have provisions to prohibit appeals against certain interlocutory applications.

“Often times we find litigants making applications for summary judgment, or to strike out the suit or pleadings.”

She said with the amendments to the procedure, there will cease to exist the right to appeal unsuccessful applications.

The significant effect of restricting appeals in such interlocutory applications, she added, facilitates the speedier disposal of main suit.

“A plaintiff who is unsuccessful in its summary judgment application should better spend its time or resources to prove its claim on the merits.

“Doing that actually and ultimately grants enhanced access to justice to both parties by inhibiting unnecessary delay.

“The plaintiff is allowed to prove his case on the evidence while the defendant need not worry about the case being protracted unnecessarily.

Touching on one of the four focus areas of the colloquium – bringing justice to rural and remote communities – Maimun said the judiciary will continue with its mobile courts programme “with greater vigour”.

She said in large states like Sabah and Sarawak, setting up newer courts might not necessarily alleviate logistic limitations in remote areas.

She also said remoteness is not only gauged by distance, but also in terms of finances and that financial remoteness also exists in the urban areas.

To this end, the mobile court programme will also be expanded to encompass the urban poor, she said.

“If one cannot access the courts, the courts will then make an active effort to reach out to them.

“To many in the remote areas, formal justice remains merely a figment of the imagination as courthouses in these areas exist only in major towns.” – January 16, 2020.