Karpal’s daughter files suit against Chief Justice

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, the daughter of the late Karpal Singh, has sued the Chief Justice, seeking a declaration that he failed to protect and defend the integrity of the judiciary in relation to Karpal’s sedition case.

The originating summons was filed through the law firm Messrs Karpal Singh & Co at the High Court registry yesterday.

The suit listed an unnamed Chief Justice as the sole respondent.

Sangeet claimed the Chief Justice did not address the allegations made by a Court of Appeal judge, who made the dissenting judgment in the M. Indira Gandhi case.

She also sought a declaration that she is entitled to have information on the internal probe conducted by the judiciary on the two cases.

Sangeet said all three judges who sat for her father’s appeal case two years ago were still serving as judges, hence they were bound by the Judges’ Code Committee 2010 and the Judges’ Code of Ethics 2009.

She alleged that the Chief Justice had failed in his statutory duty on the internal investigations into the two matters that amounted to judicial interference and in issuing a press release dated Nov 28 last year to suspend the probes.

Sangeet said as a member of the Malaysian Bar and counsel for her late father’s sedition case appeal, she was an affected person and had a legitimate expectation for an independent and impartial judiciary that was free from interference.

She also questioned the Chief Justice’s move on Nov 28 that temporarily suspended the investigations and also the hearing of Karpal’s appeal at the Federal Court.

Such actions, Sangeet claimed, amounted to bad faith and was bad in law.

In her supporting affidavit, she said there had not been any development since Nov 28 on the matters.

It was reported that Sangeet had lodged a police report in August last year following revelations from lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla that an unnamed senior judge allegedly meddled in the majority decision to allow Karpal’s appeal and acquit him of a sedition charge.

The senior judge allegedly told the judges hearing the appeal to change their decision.