95% of civil, criminal cases solved within stipulated time: Chief Justice

SINTOK: A total of 95% of court cases involving civil and commercial matters across the country were solved within the stipulated time.
Chief Justice Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif said all the cases were solved in less than a year to avoid long delay.
"Civil and commercial cases are set to be solved within nine months and currently, barely 3,000 cases are still pending as compared to more than 10,000 cases in the past.
"In terms of reducing the backlog of cases, I think we have managed to implement it and now our problem is trying to solve the remaining (pending) cases," he said after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) here today.
The MoU was between the Federal Court Chief Registrar's Office and UUM, aimed at establishing cooperation in the field of education that involved judicial and legal services, apart from providing continuous training and learning.
The Federal Court Chief Registrar's Office was represented by its Chief Registrar, Datuk Seri Latifah Mohd Tahar while UUM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak appeared for the university.
Also present was Alor Star High Court Judge Datuk Hashim Hamzah.
Md Raus said for criminal cases, especially those involving death penalty, the cases that were tried at the High Court must be completed within a year, while the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, each had nine months to solve the cases.
"Prior to this reform, the time for death penalty cases to reach the Federal Court normally took 10 to 15 years," he added.
He said a meeting with the Bar Council was also held to discuss on ways to expedite cases in court and expected full cooperation from all parties involved. — Bernama