The Malaysian Bar - Lawyer fails to overturn order barring him from practice

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Lawyer fails to overturn order barring him from practice

Friday, 07 October 2011 09:08am

©The Star (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR: A lawyer has failed in his bid to maintain his position as a legal practitioner.

This follows a High Court decision to uphold an order by the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board barring him from practising as a lawyer.

The board had in May ordered that Lian Meng Wah, 52, be struck off from the Roll of Advocates and Solicitors of the High Court of Malaya.

According to court papers, Lian was appointed by recycling company K.S. Secondary Fibre Supplier Sdn Bhd as a lawyer to handle the sale and purchase agreement of an industrial lot.

In an affidavit K.S. Secondary Fibre director Tan Yoke Leng said Lian was to retain the company’s money for the Real Property Gains Tax over the sale of the property and make the payment to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

Tan claimed Lian never paid the RM138,855 to the IRB for the said tax.

The company was later sued by the IRB for allegedly not paying the tax and had a 10% penalty imposed.

The company filed a third party claim against Lian over the tax and succeeded in recording a judgment against him for the same amount.

The company later filed a complaint with the disciplinary board against Lian over the money.

The board appointed a disciplinary committee to hear the complaint and, on May 19, ordered that Lian should be struck off from the Rolls of the Advocates and Solicitors.

In the court case Lian, the appellant, had named the company as respondent. The Bar Council was an intervener in the proceedings.

High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) judge Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim dismissed Lian’s appeal against the board’s order.

Lawyer N. Subramaniyan, acting for the company said the judge held the board was right in accepting the recommendations of its disciplinary committee to strike him (Lian) off from the roll.

“The judge ruled that nothing was wrong in the proceedings of the disciplinary committee,” he said, adding that Lian was ordered to pay RM5,000 in costs to the company and the Bar Council.

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