KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — The Malaysian Bar has issued a call to return judicial functions to the iconic Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, arguing the move would strengthen the “civic symbolism” and institutional dignity of the nation’s justice system.

Bar President Mohamad Ezri Abdul Wahab said that as constitutional organs, the courts’ presence should reflect “dignity and permanence,” and situating them within a building that is part of the national consciousness reinforces that symbolism.

The building served as the home of Malaysia’s highest courts for nearly two decades before the judiciary moved to Putrajaya in 2003, and its corridors and courtrooms “remain part of the collective memory of the Malaysian legal system.”

The Bar argued that reinstating the courts would reconnect the justice system with a site that once stood at the physical and symbolic centre of the nation’s legal world.

“Modern facilities are necessary, but they should not erase the physical anchors of our constitutional history,” the statement read, pointing to other jurisdictions that preserve historic court buildings as active centres of justice.

The Bar has urged the government to conduct a feasibility study to assess the practicalities of the move, stating that it would be a powerful acknowledgment of the “continuity of our legal institutions” and the history that underpins Malaysia’s constitutional development.