Bar Council chairman Mah Weng Kwai must demand that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board rescinds its decision to annul this year's Certificate of Legal Practice examinations, or resign from the board, said DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang today.

"Mah must redeem himself (in getting the decision rescinded) or there will be reasons to resign from the board," said the veteran politician in a statement today.

The exam results had been annulled after police reports were lodged that one of the papers in the exams had been sold to some of the students prior to the examinations.

Two reasons

"There are two powerful reasons for him to resign. First his failure to ensure that the qualifying board does not shirk and compound its negligence and irresponsibility in the CLP leak, by inflicting further injustice on honest and hardworking candidates with the nullification," said Lim.

The second reason, according to Lim, is Mah's failure to represent the Bar's position on this issue.

"He failed to represent the Bar's objection to the nullification of the results. This has caused several members of the Bar to censure him at a executive committee meeting yesterday," said Lim.

By merit of being Bar Council chairman, Mah is also a member of the Board.

On Oct 29, the Malay Mail reported that the Evidence paper of the five-paper CLP was leaked, prompting the board to declare the July and October exams null and void.

The decision affects about 200 students who passed the examinations and had started chambering before going into legal practice. They will now have to re-sit the examinations in January.

The CLP exams is a requirement for foreign law graduates from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand to qualify as advocates and solicitors in Malaysia.

Mah who leads the 10,000-strong Bar, said yesterday that the board would be meeting this Sunday to discuss appeals made by students to rescind the nullification.

No power to rescind results

The executive committee of the Bar Council met earlier yesterday and agreed to ask the board to reconsider its decision to nullify the July CLP examination and the October supplementary test.

"The resolution taken earlier by the Bar Council exco that the board has no power to rescind the results, and that it should review its earlier decision by calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry is the right and proper one," Lim added.

Lim also lambasted the board for allowing the leaks to go on for several years without taking effective measures to tighten internal checks and balances, and to uphold the integrity of the examination.

The board led by outgoing attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid announced that a decision would be made by last Tuesday. But it has now postponed to Sunday, to review appeals made by both the Bar Council as well as students.