Outrageous judge?

KUALA LUMPUR: A Penang Sessions Court judge's actions of shaking hands with and hugging prominent lawyer Karpal Singh, minutes after she had awarded him RM2.018 million in her judgement, has raised questions.

In his latest posting, blogger Desiderata-ylchong argued that judge Chan Jit Li had clearly crossed the line with her conduct in open court.

"Clearly the action of Judge Ms Chan was uncalled for -- going to an interested party in the court case and shaking his hand and embracing him, going by the NST report," he wrote.

He added, "It shows the Judge had been prejudiced and biased towards Karpal Singh who won his suit, and the Judge awarded him RM2million, not a small sum by any Malaysian standards." 

When contacted, Chong told The Mole he was concerned with the manner in which the judge had acted.

“For the judge to go and embrace someone whom she had awarded RM2 million is against the code of conduct they should abide to."

Chong said judges are expected not to mingle freely with the public, especially those who had cases they would have to preside over.

“Remember we have a case of a lawyer who went for a holiday with a top judge of this country and that is something that should not have happened.We want our judge to maintain the code of conduct whereby they are perceived to be neutral and impartial.

“Going up to someone in court to shake his hands and embrace him is unacceptable," Chong added.

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Source: MOLE