Internal probe has been suspended:
KUALA LUMPUR: An internal investigation into alleged judicial interference in an appeal concerning the late Karpal Singh was suspended in view of an ongoing police investigation into the matter, said a senior official of the Chief Justice.
Special Officer to the Chief Justice Mohd Aizuddin Zolkeply said the internal investigation was also suspended after considering that the appeal was still pending in the Federal Court.
The internal inquiry was merely suspended and not discontinued to ensure that there was no prejudice to the ongoing police investigation-and the pending appeal, he said in an affidavit-in-reply filed in the High Court here.
The seven-page document was affirmed by Mohd Aizuddin.
It was filed by the senior federal counsel representing the Chief Justice in the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry on Feb 7 in response to an originating summons by Sangeet Kaur Deo, the daughter of Karpal, a prominent lawyer-cum-politician who died in a car crash in 2014.
Sangeet had sued the Chief Justice on Jan 14, seeking a declaration that he had failed to protect and defend the integrity of the judiciary with regards to her father’s sedition case.
In her supporting affidavit, she questioned the Chief Justice ’s move on Nov 28 last year to suspend the investigations and the hearing of Karpal’s appeal at the Federal Court.
On the public allegations by Court of Appeal judge Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer, who claimed he was severely reprimanded by a top judge for delivering a dissenting decision in the Indira Gandhi case, Mohd Aizuddin said a definitive finding on the allegations could not be made due to the varying accounts given at the internal inquiry.
Hamid made the allegation in his speech at an international law conference in August last year.
Mohd Aizuddin also said the top judge concerned had retired and as such, no action could be taken under the Judges Code of Ethics 2009 read with the Judges Ethics Committee Act 2010. The matter has been fixed for case management on Feb 25.