KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Lawyer Arun Kasi said he will challenge the contempt of court proceedings initiated by the attorney general against him over his alleged “scandalising” of Federal Court judges.
Arun asserted today that he had only engaged in “fair criticism” of how their judgments were made.
“I will maintain that I have not committed any contempt.
“I have always stood for, and will stand for, truth and justice without fear or favour. It is my view that every lawyer should so stand to uphold the cause of justice,” he said in a statement today.
Arun said his two articles — which were said to have criticised the Federal Court’s conduct of proceedings and November 2018 decision in the PCP Construction vs Leap Modulation case — were constructive in their criticism.
“There is a difference between contempt and fair criticism. Contempt will lower the bar while fair criticism will raise the bar.
“I will take the position that my two articles did not border on any contempt, but were merely fair criticism of the process by which the decision in question was made,” he added.
“I expect that the Bar Council will take its stand on this,” he said, adding that he has yet to receive the court documents in relation to the contempt proceedings.
Yesterday, a three-man panel at the Federal Court granted leave for Attorney General Tommy Thomas to initiate contempt proceedings against Arun over the latter’s two articles on the website of NGO Aliran on February 16 and February 22.
The two articles were published with the titles “How a dissenting judgment sparked a major judicial crisis” and “Tommy Thomas must look into arbitration centre that sparked judicial crisis”.
In the articles, Arun had among other things, questioned the manner in which the Federal Court decided to expunge parts of Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer’s judgment in the Leap Modulation case.
Arun had raised questions on the Federal Court’s allegedly unusual removal of Hamid Sultan’s observations regarding the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) and also the judge’s direction for the lodging of a report with the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
In the articles, Arun said he had himself on February 9 lodged a report with the MACC regarding alleged irregularities in the Leap Modulation case, and also claimed that his complaint had been substantiated by Hamid Sultan’s recent affidavit.
News portal Malaysiakini reported senior federal counsel Datuk Amarjeet Singh, who represented the attorney general, saying Arun’s articles insinuated that the Federal Court judges in the Leap Modulation case were allegedly guilty of misconduct and impropriety in carrying out their judicial functions and had compromised their integrity.
Hearing at the Federal Court for both sides to present their arguments in the contempt proceedings has been fixed on March 13.
On February 14, Hamid Sultan filed a 63-page affidavit in support of lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo’s lawsuit against the chief justice for allegedly failing to complete investigations on alleged judicial interference in two court cases.
Hamid’s affidavit, which was leaked and went viral on social media, has been described as having “explosive” allegations on judicial misconduct and judicial interference in certain court cases.
The MACC has visited Hamid Sultan to gather information on the affidavit and without recording a statement from him, while the police have taken a statement from him regarding the affidavit.
Hamid Sultan’s lawyers have reportedly said the judge will divulge full details before a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently confirmed that the government would form an RCI to look into Hamid Sultan’s allegations.
