KUALA LUMPUR – Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer has withdrawn legal action against two lawyers to challenge an investigation by the Judges’ Ethics Committee into two complaints raised by other judges in relation to his judgment.
Datuk Joy Wilson Appukuttan, who acted for Hamid Sultan, said they decided to withdraw the originating summons against lawyers Sangeet Kaur Deo and Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla as the third and fourth defendants for the reason that the matters raised in the summons have become nugatory arising from the committee’s decision to suspend his client from office from February 4 to August 27.
“We have informed the court about our application to withdraw the summons against both lawyers. The court then granted our application with no order as to costs and struck out the summons.”
On whether Hamid Sultan has filed an appeal against the committee’s decision to suspend him, the lawyer said he has yet to get any instruction from his client.
On February 4, the Judges’ Ethics Committee, chaired by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, suspended Hamid Sultan from the office until August 27.
The decision was made in a closed-door inquiry at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya.
The inquiry was held to probe two complaints against Hamid Sultan.
The first was a complaint by another judge in relation to Hamid Sultan’s judgment as Court of Appeal judge in a public prosecutor’s case against Aluma Mark Chinonso & Anor.
The second was over an affidavit he affirmed in support of an originating summons filed by Sangeet, who sought several declarations with respect to court decisions made in her late father Datuk Karpal Singh’s appeals.
Hamid Sultan became the first judge to be suspended since the Judges’ Ethics Committee Act 2010 came into effect.
On October 9 last year, Hamid Sultan had filed originating summons against four defendants – the committee, its chairman, Sangeet and Haniff Khatri – over allegations that the committee could investigate the judgment he delivered and affidavit he affirmed in support of an originating summons filed by Sangeet.
On January 21, the high court allowed the application by the committee and its chairman to quash the originating summons. – Bernama, March 25, 2021
