Chief justice: 95% of court cases solved on time

SINTOK: Ninety-five per cent of court cases involving civil and commercial matters across the country were solved within the stipulated time.

Chief Justice Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif said all the cases were solved within a year to avoid long delays.

“Civil and commercial cases are set to be solved within nine months and currently, barely 3,000 cases are pending, compared to more than 10,000 cases in the past.

“In terms of reducing the backlog of cases, I think we have managed to achieve that and now our problem is trying to solve the remaining cases,” he said after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) here yesterday.

The MoU was signed between the Federal Court Chief Registrar’s Office and UUM, aimed at establishing cooperation in the field of education that involves judicial and legal services, apart from providing continuous training and learning.

The Chief Registrar’s Office was represented by its Chief Registrar, Datuk Seri Latifah Mohd Tahar, while UUM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak appeared for the university.

Also present was Alor Setar High Court Judge Datuk Hashim Hamzah.

Md Raus said that for criminal cases, especially those involving the death penalty, those tried at the High Court must be completed within a year, while the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court each have nine months to rule on cases.

“Prior to this reform, the time for death penalty cases to reach the Federal Court normally took 10 to 15 years,” he said.

He said a meeting with the Bar Council was also held to discuss ways to expedite court cases, and expected full cooperation from all parties involved. — Bernama