The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ruled that a test case would be used to decide the fates of 16 lawsuits filed against the Legal Profession Qualifying Board in last year's botched Certificate in Legal Practice examinations.

Legal counsel for the students, Karpal Singh applied before justice Arifin Zakaria to argue CLP student's Chan Kwai Chung case and to have any decision made be implemented to the other lawsuits.

"We hope the decision could be extended to the other cases as well," Karpal said. Judge Arifin concurred with the defence counsel's arguments and ruled that his decision on the present case - the first of 16 lawsuits - be applied to the other cases.

The court room was packed with anxious parents and students affected by the board's action.

Last November, the six-member LPQB came under fire following its decision to annul the examination results of the July CLP exam and the October supplementary exam after it was discovered that questions had been leaked to candidates.

In addition to the leakage, it was also revealed that the marks had been tampered with, forcing the board to 'regrade' the papers.

The board held CLP examination director Khalid Yusof, who has been with the board since 1993, responsible for the irregularities in the results. He is currently under police investigation.

At the time of the controversy, former attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid served as chairperson and was assisted by Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, Bar Council chairperson Mah Weng Kwai, Federal Court chief registrar Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail and academic Shamsuddin Suhor.

Right to be heard

Chan, who initially passed the July CLP examination, today stated in his affidavit that the LPQB's decision contravened the principles of justice and human rights.

"I would like to seek a declaration from this court that the candidates should have been given the right to be heard before the LPQB annulled the July examinations.

"I would also like to seek a declaration from the court that the annulment was illegal, arbitrary, and against the principles of the law and thus should be set aside," Chan's affidavit read.

Abdul Wahab, who is also LPQB's secretary, replied in an affidavit that while the board was responsible in rectifying mistakes in the course of the CLP examinations, it however was not aware of the tampering of the marks.

"I wish to stress that it is the responsibility of the LPQB to correct a decision which is incorrect, wrong, untrue and unfair as amongst one candidate to another.

"I also wish to stress that the results of the students according to the master report list as tabled before the defendant was incorrect and irregular as stated above. Khalid himself could not give a reasonable explanation as regards the differences which existed," Abdul Wahab said.

Khalid was said to have tampered with the marks while transferring the grades from examinations slips to the master list, which is later given to the LPQB to endorse.

"I wish to stress here that the LPQB and its members did not have any knowledge whatsoever of the impropriety that had occurred at the time the original results were made known to the students," Abdul Wahab added.

Additional 113 failures

The board failed more than half the students who had originally 'passed', changing total results to 119 passes, 170 conditional passes and 633 failures.

Before the exams were regraded, the number of passes was 232. The board failed an additional 113 students after it counter-checked the original answer sheets with the master sheet presented by Khalid to board members.

The students are also represented by Jagdip Singh Deo and Ram Karpal Singh. The LPQB is represented by Zaki Tun Azmi, Alvin John and Harjinder Kaur.

The hearing continues at 10am tomorrow.