Sabah and S'wak courts expect to clear pre-2017 cases by September 2018

MIRI: Courts in Sabah and Sarawak are on track to complete their pre-2017 cases with expected disposal for these cases by September 2018, said Sabah and Sarawak Chief Judge Tan Sri Richard Malanjum today.
"This means by that month all cases in Sabah and Sarawak will be disposed of within prescribed timelines," he said at the opening of Sabah and Sarawak Legal Year 2018 here by Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif.
Giving the breakdown of court cases disposal, Malanjum said the Sabah High Court for civil cases disposed of 75.5% of the cases, leaving 555 cases pending while for criminal cases the disposal was 72% with 206 pending cases.
Malanjum said the Sabah session courts have disposed 80.33% of civil cases with currently 594 cases pending and for criminal cases the disposal is 90% with 856 cases pending.
As for civil cases, he said the Sabah magistrate courts had disposed of 83.21% of 2,542 cases pending at present while for criminal cases the disposal is 82.14% with 3,048 cases pending.
"In the Sarawak High Court, for civil cases, 79.5 % have been disposed leaving 705 cases pending while the criminal cases disposal was 71.32 % with 252 cases pending,"he said.
For Sarawak Session Courts, he said, 67.9 % of civil cases had been disposed with 870 cases now pending while for criminal cases the disposal is 70 % with 852 cases pending.
In the Sarawak magistrate's courts, for civil cases 83.59 % of civil cases have been disposed with 1,922 cases currently pending, for criminal cases the disposal is 84.40 % with 1,383 cases pending," Malanjum said.
Besides disposing the backlog of cases, he said, outreach programmes for the communities in Sabah and Sarawak would be continued through the mobile court, mobile courtroom programme and environmental projects with Sarawak recently receiving a new bus to be used in Bintulu.
Present at the ceremony were Appeal Court President Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin,Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Federal Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, Sabah Attorney-General Zaleha Rose Pandin, Sarawak Attorney-General Datuk Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid, Sabah Law Society president Brenndon Keith Soh and Sarawak Advocates Association president Ranbir Singh Sangha. — Bernama