I read with interest your report of Justice Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus's decision regarding the habeas corpus applications of Abdul Ghani Haroon and N Gobalakrishnan (Judge orders release of ISA duo, rules detention 'unlawful', May 30).

I have to admit that I never really thought much of Hishamudin during his tenure as a High Court judge during his stint in the civil court circuit. While there was no question that he was one of the more courteous and considerate judges, I felt some of his decisions suspect as they were sometimes too literal and gave the more petty lawyers ammunition to take frivolous technical objections to an application in court. He wrote, of course, some good decisions, but his suspect ones often had a greater impact on litigants and were more notorious.

So when his Lordship was transferred to the criminal circuit, I dare say a number of us breathed a sigh of relief. However, that sigh might now be a hearty grunt of approval with his recent landmark decision on the hearing of habeas corpus applications.

The decision is clearly important for its reasoning but I think more so for the attitude inherent within. His Lordship has surprisingly taken a less literal and more holistic approach in adjudicating such an application.

His Lordship has also demonstrated that just because an arrest is under ISA it doesn't mean the police have absolutely no responsibility to follow rules and procedure. The police here were wrong and their use of the ISA was mala fide. That is a damning indictment of the police.

So much for their pathetic attempt at public relations after the Anwar Ibrahim black-eye fiasco. This decision just goes to show that nothing much has changed with the police. And finally... finally, someone in the judiciary has the balls to put it down in writing that Parliament should reconsider the ISA and won't be a party to the police's attempts at suppression.

And while his Lordship might be deserving of some of the praise heaped at him by the DAP, Amnesty International, Keadilan and Aliran, just to name a few, I hope this won't lead to any irrational exuberance about what might be accomplished. It is a step in the right direction but it is still a small step and his Lordship is only in the High Court. Let us see how it would be handled in the Federal Court. That is the real test.

And let us also not forget that his Lordship is merely forging a trail left by other judges who also had the 'balls' to buck the trend although not in civil liberty matters.

And so, while I used to merely want his Lordship to be in the criminal circuit because I was afraid of the chaos he would cause in the civil circuit, I now want and like him there because I think he is making a difference and doing far better than anybody would have hoped.

May we all have courage to make a difference and right the injustice currently plaguing this country.