Published on: Thursday, December 10, 2009 |
Putra Jaya: Lawyers are bound by the supremacy of the Malay language or Bahasa Malaysia in court proceedings, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
It said this in its written judgement when dismissing an appeal by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his RM100 million defamation suit against former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The Malay language must be used, not only in the proceeding but also in the filing of court documents, said Justice Abdul Malik Ishak in his 31-page written judgement dated Nov 2 and obtained by the media Wednesday.
On Oct 10, Abdul Malik, who sat with Justices Datuk Azhar Ma'ah and Datuk Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, dismissed Anwar's appeal on the grounds that the memorandum of appeal filed by Anwar in the English language was defective, invalid and an abuse of the process of the court.
"The supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia or the Malay language in our courts cannot be denied. Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, read together with Section 8 of the National Language Act provide that all proceedings, other than the giving of evidence by a witness, in the Federal Court, Court of Appeal, High Court and subordinate court shall be in the national language.
"Rules 101 of the Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994 states that documents shall be in the national language. Thus, the failure on the part of the appellant to file a memorandum of appeal in Bahasa Malaysia renders the record of appeal filed by the appellant, useless," said Abdul Malik.
He said the court must strictly enforce the need to file court documents in the Malay language, as ordained by the law.
The memorandum of appeal that Anwar filed in the English language amounted to a blatant breach of the law and must be rejected, he added.
"It requires the appellant to file the memorandum of appeal in the national language. No other language will be entertained and it will not qualify as a record of appeal," he said further.
Anwar had filed the suit on Jan 26, 2006, claiming that Dr Mahathir's remarks, calling him a homosexual, were highly defamatory and aimed at humiliating him in his personal and official capacity as former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
On July 4, 2007, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the suit with costs after it allowed Dr Mahathir's application to strike out the suit.
Anwar then appealed to the Court of Appeal against the decision.
On Oct 10, a three-man panel of the Appeal Court granted Dr Mahathir's application to strike out the appeal and ordered Anwar to pay costs.
Abdul Malik said: "Everything seems to go wrong with the appellant and the flagrant breaches of the rules seem to be the hallmark of the appellant in this case.
"To add salt to injury, the purported memorandum of appeal in the English language is also not signed by the appellant's solicitors, thereby rendering it to be invalid and of no effect, whatsoever."
Counsel Karpal Singh and S. N. Nair acted for Anwar while Datuk V. K. Lingam and R. Thayalan appeared for Dr Mahathir.
