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©New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by V. Anbalagan

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal can deal with civil appeals in a speedy manner only if lawyers provide information promptly.

Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Zaki Azmi said if they did not do so, his registry would have to go through every file and call up the lawyers handling the cases.

"Only lawyers handling the cases can ensure that the records of appeals are complete before the registry can fix case management and hearing dates," he said in a press statement yesterday.

Zaki said this in response to a statement by Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan in the New Sunday Times that her members may not have access to the appellate court's notifications which appear on the website http://coapending.kehakiman.gov.my to provide feedback on civil cases.

Ambiga had also called on the judiciary to appoint senior lawyers to sit as temporary judicial commissioners in the High Court to clear the backlog of cases.

She said focusing on lawyers for not providing information detracted from the main cause of the backlog of cases.

On Friday, Zaki had called for the Bar's co-operation to update the registry on the civil and criminal appeal files.

There were 10,000 civil appeals and interlocutory matters and 900 criminal appeals waiting to be disposed of.

Zaki said there were a lot of appeals but the parties did not wish to proceed.

"There are instances where judgments have been written by High Court judges but are not filed at the Court of Appeal," he said, adding that this added to the delay.

Zaki said it should not be misunderstood that the purpose of getting the information was to enable the appellate court to prioritise certain type of cases which could be disposed of speedily.

"We would like to reiterate and continue to request Bar members to assist the Court of Appeal in providing the information."

Zaki said Ambiga's stand on the appointment of senior lawyers as temporary judicial commissioners was a separate matter as his statement was to seek the cooperation of lawyer to provide information.

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