CJ keeps mum over Karpal's complaint against him
Chief Justice Zaki Azmi today refused to confirm if he had indeed received a complaint lodged against him last month under the Judges' Code of Ethics Act, 2009 and the Judges' Ethics Committee Act, 2009.
Chief Justice Zaki Azmi today refused to confirm if he had indeed received a complaint lodged against him last month under the Judges' Code of Ethics Act, 2009 and the Judges' Ethics Committee Act, 2009.
Asked at a press conference today, the top judge clammed up the moment he heard YB Karpal Singh's name.
"No comment. I do not want to enter into the political arena. No comment," he said repeatedly when pressed. 
DAP stalwart and senior lawyer Karpal Singh had on Aug 20 become the first person to file a complaint under the two Acts, which came into force in March 2009.
In the complaint delivered by hand to the Chief Justice's office in Putrajaya today, the MP said Zaki's June 11 statement showed a 'defect in character' warranting disciplinary action under the Acts.
The complaint marks a continuation of Karpal's (right) battle to push for the removal of the chief justice, which began with a police report lodged in 2008 based on his admission that he had bribed court officers when he was a lawyer in 1987.
Back-logged cases cleared in two years
The head of judiciary had earlier officially opened the New Civil Court, which follows the model of the New Commercial Court set up last year to deal with the back-log of cases.
"We envisage that we will be able to clear all back-logged cases in Kuala Lumpur in two years," he said.
There are 2352 cases pending in the Civil Court with 1043 piled up at the Commercial Court, the oldest filed in1998.
"This is a considerable improvement to 2009 where the figures were close to 6000 in the Commercial Court and 4000-odd in the Civil Court," he said.
Many of the cases, he said, were dropped because the parties involved were no longer interested due to the long wait.
"We admit the number of cases in the Court of Appeal has risen due to the efficiency in the High Court...so we will soon move High Court judges up to the Court of Appeal.
"This is not for the judges' benefit. We will get paid whether or not we do work. It's for you, your taxpayers' money. For every judge I reduce, I save the government RM1 to 1.5 million a year," he said.
Court officers not overworked
Commenting on claims that speedy disposals of cases undermine justice, Chief Judge of Malaya Ariffin Zakaria, also present today, said that "95 percent of the cases are on the question of facts rather than the law".
He added that judges are compelled to provide grounds for their judgements in writing, and those who do not will not have their leaves approved.
Zaki added that it is unreasonable for them to say they are overworked, or worse to commit suicide over this, as was the case of a lawyer in Penang.
"If you are overworked, stop working. Don't go and murder yourself....It's those who cannot keep up (with the efficiency improvements) who complain that we are taking over opportunity for advocacy or that they don't have time for family etc," he said.
