The appointment of the new Court of Appeal president will be announced soon, Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah said today.

"It is still in the process. You can expect an announcement soon," Dzaiddin said of the judiciary's number two post which fell vacant with the demise of Wan Adnan Ismail last December.

The announcement is expected to include the new appointments to fill vacancies for judicial commissioners and judges at the Federal Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court. Dzaiddin did not provide details on the new appointments.

He had earlier appointed V Thiripurasingam as High Court Judge of Malaya and Sulaiman Daud as High Court Judge of Sabah and Sarawak at a ceremony. The two had served as judicial commissioners since June 2000.

In his speech, Dzaiddin said all judges must work hard not only to safeguard the present good image of the judiciary but also to enhance it.

"The only way to ensure the judiciary's credibility is that all its officers, especially the judges, perform their duties in upholding justice," he said.

New appointments

He also congratulated Thiripurasingam and Sulaiman on their appointments and hoped that the two will continue their good performance as shown while they were judicial commissioners.

Thiripurasingam, 54, graduated from Lincoln's Inn in 1987. Prior to this, he worked as a legal clerk for several legal firms in Teluk Intan, Perak over a period of 17 years. He was once a part-time correspondent for the New Straits Times .

He was admitted to the Bar in 1988 and worked as a legal assistant before opening his own firm.

He was also the editor for the Malaysian Current Law Journal and Industrial Law Reports until his appointment as a judicial commissioner.

Sulaiman, 56, had been in the judicial and legal services since 1980 and had held several posts in the Attorney-General's Chambers until his promotion to judicial commissioner.