PUTRAJAYA, Fri: The Court of Appeal (Dato’ Gopal Sri Ram,
Datuk Wira Haji Ghazali Yusoff and Tengku Dato’ Baharuddin Shah bin Tengku
Mahmud) today dismissed a preliminary objection raised by a Sarawak party that
West Malaysian lawyers cannot appear before the Court of Appeal sitting in
Putrajaya hearing an appeal arising from a High Court decision originating from
Sarawak. The Court of Appeal gave reasons for its decision which will
be released shortly.
As a result of this decision, it is hoped that the right of West Malaysian
lawyers to argue before the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal when the
Appellate Courts sit in West Malaysia, which right has occasionally been
questioned since the formation of Malaysia in 1963, will no longer be
challenged.