Penghakiman Sah Walaupun Pelantikan Tidak Sah

YONG TSHU KHIN & ANOR V. DAHAN CIPTA SDN BHD & ANOR AND OTHER APPLICATIONS [2021] 1 CLJ 63

FEDERAL COURT, PUTRAJAYA30 NOVEMBER 2020
[2020] CLJ JT(15)

The validity of a decision of a court, a judge or a judicial arbiter cannot be collaterally challenged on the ground that the judge's appointment is invalid as, even if his appointment is deemed invalid, his decision is saved by the application of the de facto doctrine which exists to preserve the integrity of judicial decisions. Where therefore the validity of the decision of the apex court and its coram is being challenged on the ground of alleged invalidity or unconstitutionality of the appointment of the Chief Justice who empaneled the court, or for that matter too of the appointment of the President of the Court of Appeal, the argument that the panel is in the circumstances suffering from a coram failure cannot be sustained or assented to; even if the appointment of the CJ or the PCA, as the case may be, were set aside de jure, they were not usurpers in the real sense of the word, as there were some legal basis for their appointments, and therefore, the decisions that they made, whether judicial or administrative, are protected by the aforesaid doctrine, whose primary existence, it bears reemphasis, is to save the integrity of the judgments of the court.