PETALING JAYA: A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the judiciary must be set up "without delay", urges the Malaysian Bar. In a statement on Monday (Aug 20), Malaysian Bar president George Varughese said an RCI is needed to investigate alleged instances of judicial misconduct and to recommend judicial reforms. This comes following Court of Appeal judge Justice Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer’s claim last week that he was “severely reprimanded” by a top judge for his dissenting judgment in the M. Indira Gandhi unilateral conversion case. He said the RCI must also "put in place measures to ensure that no manner of coercion, influence or threat is ever brought to bear on any judge". In his dissenting decision, Justice Hamid Sultan said the Administration of Religion of Islam (Perak) Enactment 2004, the law that allowed for the conversion, could be questioned by a civil court.

Source: The Star August 20, 2018 10:07 UTC