MEDIATION SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAMME - UPDATE!

Dear Members,

Kindly note that two (2) lucky candidates were recently drawn to attend the Mediation Skills Training Programme which is scheduled for 24-28 April 2010 at the Bar Council Auditorium, Kuala Lumpur (Trainers : Accord Group Australia). 

These lucky recipients sponsored by the Perak Bar are Mr. Kenny Lai Choe Ken and En.Ghazali Bin Mohd Ramli respectively. 

For those who wish to attend the said course kindly make enquiries with the Bar Council Secretariat accordingly.

With regards and thanks
Hemalatha PR
Honorary Secretary

Perak Bar and Ipoh City Council Food Fair and Open Day 2010

To all Perak Bar Members,

The Perak Bar Social Sub-Committee will be organizing the "Perak Bar and Ipoh City Council Open Day and Food Fair 2010" which will be held on 22nd May, 2010 (Saturday) at Polo Ground (Padang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah) from 8:00am to 2:00pm.

All those interested to set up food or produce stalls are required to submit immediately their applications due to the limited number of stall spaces.  Kindly be informed that the Social Sub-Committee shall not be obliged to accept all applications.  The decision of the Sub-Committee in respect of same shall be final.

Participation is strictly on a first come first served basis.

Kindly contact Miss Janet Wong at 012-5228513 or En. Nizam at 012-5171541 if you have any queries.  The application forms may be obtained from either the Bar Room (High Court) or the Perak Bar Secretariat (05-2415457).  All application forms shall be returned to the Perak Bar Secretariat on / before 20th April, 2010.



Yours Faithfully,

Zaireen Zainal
Chair
Social Committee
Perak Bar 2010/2011

UPDATE - BRIEFING ON NEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CKHT BY LHDN

UPDATE!

Dear Members,

The date for the talk has been confirmed on the 13th April 2010 at 3.30pm.

Venue is yet to be confirmed.

Please watch this space for the update on the venue once that has been confirmed.

Thank you.

PERAK BAR BLOGMASTER

LEGAL AID BOOTH

Although it was a week day, International Women’s Day 2010 drew in a remarkable crowd on opening day Monday 8^th. March.    The event was jointly organized by Perak Women For Women and Soroptimist International Ipoh, and officiated by YB Dato Hamidah Osman, EXCO Wanita Perak.

 Perak Legal Aid Centre along with 14 other Ngos were invited to setup booths to create more awareness to the public.  The theme for this year was “Equal Rights Equal Opportunities – Progress For All.  Excited crowd thronged the concourse area of Kinta City Shopping Centre daily from 10 a.m to 10.30 p.m. to take advantage of the information from the booths.  Twelve chambering students participated in manning the booths during the week long event and there were 45 consultations.

  Most visitors were seen moving from booth to booth picking flyers and seeking advise. Bustling with fun and activities, happy shoppers and visitors  alike were also seen playing games and taking part in the many interactive events arranged by the organizers.  Abuzz with shrieks of excitement were the exciting performances all night long.  The week long event ended with a big bang last night 14^th March 2010 accompanied with music and entertainment .  The organizers thanked all of us for making the event a huge success.

- contributed by M. Gokoolaram Naidu

Well, the International Women's Day, 8^th of March, is an occasion marked by women's groups all around the world, where their voices are gathered in a celebratory shout in recognition of the struggles and victories of the women's movement for equality, justice, peace and development. It is also a day to plan for future strategies in eliminating all forms of discrimination against women.

Withholding to this occasion itself, there was this Women’s Day campaign week, held in Kinta City Ipoh ( 8.3.2010 - 14.3.2010 ) where various WOMEN’S groups and NGO’s had taken part in the said campaign by setting up information booths for the public. Nevertheless, the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (LAC) had also joined-in and opened its information booth at the same location from 10 a.m to 10 p.m for the entire week.

The LAC has taken the opportunity to provide the public with the functions of LAC which are:-

1. Offer free legal advice, representation and intervention for civil and criminal matter;
2. Offer assistance in mitigation of sentences, remand proceedings and bail applications; and
3. Creates awareness and educates the public on their rights.

The week-long campaign was indeed a fruitful one. There were crowds and people had actually approached the LAC’s booth with their problems and seek for legal consultations. This entire campaign has actually got in touch with public particularly the women to understand and overcome the issues affecting them.

As today, the ignorance of the Law is no longer considered a bliss, therefore the LAC has to step forward and provides the people with the equal opportunity for the enforcements of their fundamental right to equality before the law. Hence, I do hope more campaigns akin to this should be conducted more often in near future. 

- contributed by a Pupil in Chamber who prefers to remain anonymous

BRIEFING ON NEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CKHT BY LHDN

DEAR MEMBERS OF THE PERAK BAR,

RE: BRIEFING ON NEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CKHT BY LHDN.

PLEASE BE INFORMED, PERAK BAR CONVENYANCING COMMITTEE HAS COMMUNICATED AND REQUESTED LHDN TO HAVE A 2^ND ROUND OF BRIEFING REGARDING THE NEW IMPLEMENTATION OF CKHT. LHDN HAS AGREED TO CONDUCT THE SAID BRIEFING IN EARLY APRIL.

TO THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING THE SAID BRIEFING, KINDLY CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE AT PERAK BAR SECRETARIAT 05-2537590/2415457 (MISS PREM/MISS SARA) OR PN NOOREHAN AT 05-2559701/019-4374927 ON/BEFORE 02/04/2010 .

THANK YOU.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

NOOREHAN BINTI ZAKARIA

CHAIRMAN FOR COONVENYANCING SUB COMMITTEE

PERAK BAR.

MEETING WITH CPO PERAK

Dear Members,

The Perak Bar Committee will be having a meeting with the Perak CPO on the 8th of April 2010.

Should you have any problems or queries you wish the Perak Bar Committee to bring up to the CPO at the meeting kindly send a letter with your queries to the Perak Bar Secretariat BEFORE the 5th of April 2010.

Thank you.

Perak Bar Blogmaster

CASE COMMENT

NORWEST HOLDINGS SDN BHD V MUHIBBAH ENGINEERING (M)BHD

HIGH COURT MALAYA, SHAH ALAM

Civil Suit No. MT1-22-812-2001

SURIYADI HALIM OMAR, J

18 OCTOBER 2004

Civil Procedure-Striking Out –Time frame to file O.18 r. 19 RHC 1980 application- Interpretation of phrase “at any stage of proceedings”-Effect of amendments to Rules of the High Court vide O. 1A and O 2 r 3.

Brief Facts

Object of this case note is to highlight the unique feature of this suit where a striking out application (“the application”) pursuant to O. 18 r 19 RHC 1980 and inherent powers of Court was allowed by the High Court despite such application being filed by the Defendant:-

(i) 3 month after close of pleading;

(ii) 2 and ½ month after the O34 RHC 1980 pre trial case management notice was filed by the Plaintiff;

(iii) After having filed unconditional appearance.

Naturally, the Plaintiff argued that it was too late in the day for the application to be entertained.

Plaintiff placed reliance on the following authorities in support of their contention:-

(i) Thiruchelvasegaram Manickavasegar v Mahadevi Nadchatiram [2001] 3 CLJ 743 HC where the Court held that a striking out application must normally be made before close of pleading;

(ii) Alor Janggus Soon Seng Trading Sdn Bhd & Ors v Sey Hoe Sdn Bhd & Ors [1995] 1 CLJ 461 SC and Anchorage Mall Sdn Bhd v Irama Team (M) Sdn Bhd & Anor [2001] 7 CLJ 313 HC for the proposition that one is precluded from filing the application after having filed an unconditional appearance.

The Court, in face of what was thought as settled law, pronounced that the time frame to file the application has changed, a change prompted by P.U.(A) 197 which introduced O 1A and O. 2 r 3 RHC 1980 on 16.5.2002.

Suriyadi J opined that by these amendments, the Courts are now required to have regard to the justice of the particular case and not only technical non compliance of the Rules and in effect placed “all technical objections at its rightful place , i.e., irrelevant at its rightful place”

The Court took note that O 18 r 19 RHC 1980 “in no uncertain term” expressly state that the court may at any stage of the proceeding order among others that a pleading be struck out. Nothing is provided under O 18 to preclude the filing of the application on the grounds either that pleadings are closed or that the applicant had filed an unconditional appearance.

The High Court ruled that to maintain a restrictive definition to the phrase “at any stage of the proceeding” to preclude applications so filed after close of pleading and after filing of an unconditional appearance result in the denial of the “court’s right” to exercise its discretionary powers accorded by O.18 r 19 RHC 1980 and other provisions of the Rules of High Court including O1A and O2 r 3 RHC 1980.

In short, the Court ruled that O 18 r 19 RHC 1980 falls within the ambit of the spirit of O1A and O 2 r 3 RHC 1980 in that administration of the rules of court concerns more on justice of the case as opposed to technical non compliance of the rules. Thus the 3 cases referred by the Plaintiff above which were all decided before May 2002 (prior to the introduction of O1A & O2 r 3 RHC 1980) in support of the contention that the application was not promptly filed was in the words of Suriyadi J “doomed to meet failure”

Commentary

Courts are created to settle disputes between litigants. Such dispute ought not be resolve by resorting to technical or procedural objections that does not relate to the root of the dispute unless substantial injustice is caused. To that end it is submitted that this judgment is of immense benefit to practitioners.

Unless amended, a suit that is liable to be struck out on the grounds that its pleadings is plain and obviously unsustainable, remains plain and obviously unsustainable no matter how late an application to strike out is filed.

Even if the Court forms the view that the application was not filed promptly, it is submitted that the necessary penalty by way of denial to an order of cost either in part or in full can be made thus depriving the dilatory applicant from what should be his order for cost in a successful application.

This would serve the administration of justice a great deal better than to permit a suit premised on a pleading which is plain and obviously unsustainable to be litigated in a full blown open court trial which naturally takes time, expense and manpower to conclude.

Note

Readers do note that this case note focus solely on the time frame for filing of a striking out application and how that time frame has change as a result of the amendment to the Rules of High Court 1980. The issue of the merits on the application subject matter of this suit is not considered. This case is reported as Norwest Holdings Sdn Bhd v Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd [2004] & CLJ 400

Dated 10^th February 2010

Norazali Nordin

Chair

Professional Development Sub Committee

Perak Bar