Procession marks beginning of legal year for Sarawak and Sabah
MIRI: Over 400 members of legal fraternity comprising judges, judicial officers and lawyers took part in a procession yesterday to mark the start of the legal year for Sarawak and Sabah.
The occasion also marked the seventh year of the joint celebration, which was derived from the ‘Judges Service’ –a tradition observed at the Westminster Abbey in England.
Yesterday’s procession was the second time held here – the first was conducted in 2008.
The inaugural opening of the ‘ Legal Year’ for Sabah and Sarawak Courts took place in Sandakan, Sabah in 2001.
This year’s theme is ‘Justice in Diversity’.
Leading the 1.5km procession from Pullman Hotel to Miri Court Building was Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif.
Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, High Court of Malaya Chief Judge Tan Sri Datuk Wira Ahmad Maarop, Sarawak and Sabah Chief Judge Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, Attorney- General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting and Miri Mayor Adam Yii were among the participants.
The procession took off at 8am, where the participants walked past several city landmarks along Jalan Merbau and Jalan Sylvia before reaching the court building at Jalan Merdu.
Raus later declared open the ‘ Sarawak Mobile Courtroom’, before visiting the exhibition booths set up by various government departments and agencies as well as local entrepreneurs.
The celebration would last for three days, in which it would also host workshop on ‘ Legal Practice from the Perspective of a Judicial Mind’, an elementary course on the representation of children in Malaysia, a ‘National Symposium on Islamic Banking and Finance’, as well as a gala dinner.