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CL 8/09

16-09-2009

To all Members of the Penang Bar,

We have been informed by the Chief Justice and Chief Judge of Malaya that the Penang High Court will undergo a re-organisation exercise in order to deal with effective and speedy disposal of cases.

The re-organisation would be inline and / or similar to the system introduced in Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam.

To achieve this purpose, the new Tracking system for both the Civil and Criminal High Courts will be implemented on 1st October 2009 and members are therefore advised to familiarise themselves with the following directions.

As at 31.07.2009, the number of outstanding Civil cases were as follows:

To optimise Judges’ time for disposal of these cases and applications, they have been assigned to deal with specific types of cases or applications based on the Tracking system:

However please note that part-heard cases will be heard by the same Judges, irrespective of the track.

T Track

Judges in this track will only hear cases involving oral evidence (other than those in the M track)

e.g. Writ actions

Before the case can proceed for hearing, the following must be in the Court file:

a) Ikatan Pliding [i.e. Statement of Claim, Defence, Replies (if any)]
b) Ikatan Dokumen
c) Witness Statements (in Q & A format, numbered & affirmed like an Affidavit)

Relevant directions will be issued by the respective TP / Registrar in relation to the above.

A Track

Judges in this track will only hear applications and cases with Affidavit evidence (other than those in the M track)

e.g. cases where there are no dispute of facts, Order 14, Order 14A, Order 18 rule 19, Interim Injunction, Foreclosure actions

All Affidavits must be exhausted before a Hearing date is fixed.

Judges may also request for short written submissions and all parties will be required to submit the submissions on the same date. The Courts will not follow the submissions-in-reply format.

However the Judges may choose to proceed and hear the case even without
written submissions.

M Track

Judges in this track will hear cases involving:

● Land reference (code 15)
● Divorce (code 33)
● Companies’ winding up (code 28)
● Appeals from Subordinate Courts and other tribunals (e.g. ‘short’ and ‘long’ Calls to the Bar, appeal from Disciplinary Board’s decision (code 11 & 12)
● Judicial Review

As the Court’s target is to deal with outstanding Appeals, some cases may be called up on dates which were not fixed earlier.

Judges

The following Judges are assigned to the respective Tracks:

T track : YA Dato’ Zakaria Bin Sam & YA Dato’ John Louis O’Hara

A track & M track (family) : YA Dato’ Haji Abdul Halim Bin Aman

M track : YA Puan Normala Binti Salim

Managing Judges

YA Dato’ Abdull Hamid Bin Embong has been appointed as the Managing Judge together with YA Dato’ James Foong.

Managing Judge Unit & Timbalan Pendaftars (TPs)

All the current TPs will no longer be responsible directly to the Judge of the respective Courts. Instead, they will be at the direction of the Managing Judge (MJ) and will be attached to the MJ’s unit.

Cases from all the tracks that are not ready to proceed for hearing will be called for Management by the TPs, who will be seated at the managing area* managing cases and applications from 9.00am to approximately 11.00am every day. They will give appropriate directions (including another date for case management) to
get the matter ready for trial or hearing.

(*the Managing Area will be located on the 1st Floor of the High Court Building, towards the back of the main staircase area and adjacent to the TP’s rooms.)

Cases which are ready for hearing will be directed to the respective Judge assigned to the particular track.

Please note that Judges will only hear a case or matter which is ready to proceed for hearing.

Civil Registry

The Civil Registry will be re-organised into Units for each code e.g. ‘Writ Unit’, ‘O/S Unit’, etc.

But for applications such as Foreclosure and Transfer of Trust Property (by way of O/S), there will be a separate unit to cater to these distinctive applications.

The units will be managed by the Senior Assistant Registrars (SARs) and clerical personnel for these new units will be from the existing staff assigned to each Court.

The SARs rooms will be located on the Ground Floor of the High Court building, facing St. George’s Church / Farquhar Street, below the back staircase area.

Please note that SARs will continue to hear applications fixed before them.

CRIMINAL DIVISION

The statistics of Criminal cases as at 09.09.2009 are as follows:

	●	Drug trafficking under s. 39B DDA (Code 45)	-	160
	●	Murder under s.302 Penal Code (Code 45)	-	34
	●	Kidnapping under s.3 Kidnapping Act (code 45)	-	1
	●	Offences under FIPA (Code 45)	-	3
	●	Criminal appeals from Subordinate Courts (Code 41 & 42)	-	97
	●	Criminal Revision (Code 43)	-	1
	●	Miscellaneous applications (Code 44)	-	3

The following Judges have therefore been assigned to hear cases according to specific areas:

Judges

Murder, Kidnapping, FIPA cases & others : YA Dato’ Abdul Rahim Bin Uda

Drug trafficking cases : YA Tuan Yaacob Bin Haji Sam

Drug trafficking cases (and on the first week of every month - criminal appeals, revision & other criminal applications) : YA Tuan Amin Firdaus Bin Abdullah

Drug trafficking cases : YA Tuan Chew Soo Ho

Managing Judge

YA Dato’ James Foong has been appointed as Managing Judge for the Criminal Division.

Criminal Registry

The Criminal Registry will be re-organised and headed by Puan Regina Paskaren and assisted by a Senior Assistant Registrar (SAR). They will be supported by administrative staff.

Directions

Existing cases will be reassigned to the Judges responsible for the respective matters.

Cases will be called up for case management whereby Counsel and DPPs are requested to attend.

The TP or SAR will also have to ensure that the case is ready for trial i.e. that the parties are informed of the hearing dates, requested subpoenas have been issued, order to produce the prisoner is issued to the prison authorities, etc.

An appropriate number of days will be allocated for cases to be heard and completed. If there is a spill over, the case will be sent to the TP to fix another date for continued hearing.

Members are to note that once a case is fixed for trial, it must be ready and must go on and requests for postponements will not be entertained.

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General Information & Reminders

1. We have requested that we are given a certain grace period to get used to the new system and that cases should not be struck out initially in the event lawyers are not present at the respective Courts at 9.00am.

2. Members are also reminded to be punctual as the Courts will be sitting from 9.00am everyday and they will not entertain requests for postponements and adjournments unless in serious circumstances.

3. Members are also advised to manage your diaries effectively and to ensure that you are able to be present in Court for all matters fixed.

4. As a general guideline, the Court will be concentrating on pre-2006 partheard and fresh cases for both civil and criminal matters. However they have assured us that they will continue to deal with cases from 2006
onwards in urgent circumstances.

5. During the initial period, there will be counters set up in Court to assist members with queries, manned both by Court representatives and the Bar.

6. We hereby enclose two (2) Notices dated 15-09-2009 from the Penang High Court pertaining to the following:

● Appendix A : Civil cases fixed before the High Court Judges & Judicial Commissioners will now be heard by the respective TPs.

● Appendix B : Civil cases fixed before the TPs will now be heard by the respective SARs.

7. Further directions will be issued from time to time and members will be informed of the same


Thank you.

…………………………….
MURELI NAVARATNAM
CHAIRMAN

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APPENDIX "A"





APPENDIX "B"

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CL 9/09

28-09-2009

To all Members of the Penang Bar,

UPDATE:

Further to our earlier Circular CL 8/09, we hereby enclose the floor plans of the areas designated for the new “Managing Judge Unit” and “Senior Assistant Registrar Unit” at the Penang High Court, marked as Appendix “A” and “B” respectively.

Kindly be informed further that from 1st October 2009 (Thursday), only cases that re listed for hearing before a Judge will be heard. All other matters will be heard by the respective Deputy Registrars (TPs) and Senior Assistant Registrars (SARs).

Cause lists will be prepared by the Court and posted on the website once we obtain the same.


Thank you.


…………………………….
MURELI NAVARATNAM
CHAIRMAN

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APPENDIX "A"





APPENDIX "B"