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KUALA LUMPUR: Public confidence in the judiciary will erode if judges criticise one another openly, Bar Council vice-chairman Ragunath Kesavan said yesterday.

He said this would seem to indicate that there could be personality issues.

"If a judge is said to have misconducted himself or there was a dereliction of duty, then the judge should be hauled before a tribunal," he added.

Ragunath said minor problems among judges should be solved behind closed doors.

"The open squabbles are detrimental to litigants who will be caught in the crossfire. Inevitably, it will lead to appeals and additional legal costs," he said.

Ragunath said this in response to two key events in the judiciary over the last one week.

On Thursday, the five-man Federal Court bench, unanimously set aside two judgments of the Court of Appeal saying they were tainted with bias against Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd.

The company had argued before the Federal Court that the uncalled for remarks in the judgments had affected its chances of winning the case.

The apex court then restored the High Court order.

The Federal Court also allowed the applications of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin and businessman Tan Sri Halim Saad that certain offensive remarks about them in the main judgment, authored by Datuk Gopal Sri Ram, be removed.

It said that Sri Ram went on a frolic of his own.

On July 12, Sri Ram who presided in a land appeal case had declared that he was not following a Federal Court decision in Adorna Properties v Boonsom Boonyanit, saying it had decided wrongly.

In response, the Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim on Wednesday openly criticised Sri Ram on that matter.

The top judge said lower courts must follow the apex court ruling.

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