The Kuala Lumpur civil High Court has decided to scrap its 'fast track' system from Monday, catching the legal fraternity by surprise.

The system was implemented only last September as part of a reorganisation exercise to ensure "uniformity, expeditious and efficient disposal of cases with optimum use of judicial time", according to then Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah (left).

It now appears that the system has not lived up to the expectations of the judiciary in terms of disposal of cases, thereby leading to its abolition.

The Bar Council expressed unhappiness on two counts - it was not consulted about the decision while the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee had been cooperating with the judiciary to ensure the success of the system.

Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee chairperson Ragunath Kesavan told malaysiakini that it was informed of the decision last week.

"We were at a meeting with Justice James Foong last Friday when he suddenly told us about the decision to scrap the system. It was as sudden as the time when the judiciary decided to implement the system," he said when contacted today.

Expressing his disappointment, Ragunath said the judiciary should have consulted the committee before making a decision because lawyers would have to bear the consequences of ensuing changes.

"We regret that they (the judiciary) did not consider the views of the Bar, which has been supportive of the change. We provided feedback that was very positive. Unfortunately our views did not seem to be important," he said.

He said Foong, who was the managing judge in charge of assigning applications to the fast track or normal courts, did not give any reasons as to why the system was being scrapped.

Ragunath said the judge merely said he was following a directive from his superior.

However, legal practitioners felt that the system had resulted in some improvements including uniformity of procedures and some certainty that hearings would not be postponed.

'Consider our views'

Bar Council chairperson Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari (right) said Chief Judge of Malaya Haidar Mohd Noor had told him that statistics showed there was no improvement under the system.

"I was informed that a higher number of cases had been disposed of under the old system. Even if this is true, there should have been a more comprehensive discussion with us before the system was scrapped, especially since the Kuala Lumpur Bar had given positive feedback on the change," he said.

He hoped that, in future, the judiciary would take the views of the Bar into consideration before implementing major changes in the court system.

"It has to be a two-way cooperation. We were not consulted over the case management system either. This should not go on. Our views must be considered," he said.

Under the fast track system, the seven numbered civil courts were replaced by three fast track and two normal track courts. The fast track courts were designated to hear specific matters assigned by a managing judge.

The revamp also included the respective registries, which are now coded based on the type of applications filed.