Lawyers from Peninsular Malaysia can appear before the Court of Appeal hearing an appeal arising from High Court Sabah and/or Sarawak

PUTRAJAYA, Fri (7th November 2008): The Court of Appeal (Dato’ Gopal Sri Ram, Datuk Wira Haji Ghazali Yusoff and Tengku Dato’ Baharuddin Shah bin Tengku Mahmud) today (7th November 2008) dismissed a preliminary objection raised by a Sarawak party that West Malaysian lawyers cannot appear before the Court of Appeal sitting in Putrajaya hearing an appeal arising from a High Court decision originating from Sarawak. The Court of Appeal gave reasons for its decision which will be released shortly. As a result of this decision, it is hoped that the right of West Malaysian lawyers to argue before the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal when the Appellate Courts sit in West Malaysia, which right has occasionally been questioned since the formation of Malaysia in 1963, will no longer be challenged.

(Click here to read the full judgement)