KUALA LUMPUR: Controversial former lawyer Datuk V. K. Lingam is challenging his expulsion from the legal fraternity over a 2001 judge-fixing scandal, which was caught on tape.
Lingam seeks to restore his place in the legal profession through an Originating Motion filed at the High Court Registry here in December last year.
He was struck off the Roll of Advocates and Solicitors on Nov 6 last year when the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board found him liable for professional misconduct for allegedly conspiring with several others to influence judicial appointments.
According to court papers, Lingam, who closed his law firm and quit practicing in late 2014 due to medical reasons, is appealing the Board's decision to remove him from the Roll.
He also seeks to overturn the Disciplinary Committee's finding of misconduct against him. The Committee's finding was affirmed by the Board on Nov 6.
Lingam claimed that the Board had misdirected itself when it upheld the Committee's adverse finding against him.
He claimed this is because the Committee's finding is unsustainable factually and legally as it failed to implement standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt when considering the misconduct charge.
The High Court here has set Oct 17 to hear Lingam's legal action against the Bar Council.
The Board's decision was over a Bar Council complaint against Lingam for purported involvement in the contents of a 14-minute video clip, which surfaced on online video-sharing site YouTube in late 2007.
A 998-page Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report, released to the public on May 20, 2008, ruled that the video clip was genuine and that the recording showed Lingam speaking on the phone to former chief justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim over the appointment of judges.
Lingam denied being the person speaking on the phone. He testified during the RCI hearing, saying: "It (person speaking on the phone in the video) looks like me and sounds like me."
The RCI report recommended that action be taken against six individuals implicated in the scandal, who were former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Ahmad Fairuz, former chief justice Tun Mohamed Eusoff Chin, now Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, businessman Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Lingam.
The Federal Court upheld the RCI's findings on Sept 13, 2011.