PROCRASTINATING JUDGES

HANTU LAUT

Procrastination: The intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done now.Chronic procrastination maybe a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.

The Court of Appeal registry's record revealed that a former High Court judge did not write grounds of judgement in 33 criminal and civil cases. The judge concerned has since been promoted to the Federal Court. In two of his cases, the prisoners were languishing in death row for almost ten years due to his failure to provide ground of judgement, in the absence of which, the accused couldn't make an appeal to a higher court.

As usual and in true Malaysian style of living in denial and false sense of infallibility, the Chief Justice of The Federal Court,Tun Ahmad Fairuz asked for proof that he had elevated undeserving judges.

Maybe, those seemingly busy, overworked and procrastinating judges should delegate the writing of grounds of judgement to their underlings.