KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria admonished today judges who played truant from work, most of whom reportedly disappeared after Friday prayers for Muslims.

In his speech addressing the 50th National Judges’ Conference here, Arifin said he has heard of such complaints against “some” judges, expressing concern that such actions would be followed by their subordinates.

“There’s been some observation made about some judges not following office hours...don’t show up in the evening but present in the morning.

“You should be in the office lah...at least when they call you or someone is looking for you,” Arifin said.

“Most go missing on Friday...go in the morning then disappear in the afternoon...because we work within the office, we have clerks, we have staff and they observe our conduct everyday (and will think) ‘Judges also don’t come, why must we come?’” the Chief Justice added.

He told judges that they cannot “simply leave” their office on grounds that they were independent, reminding that it is the courts that are independent.

About 133 judges were present at today’s conference at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel here.