KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Judgment Portal, the first of its kind, was launched today and aimed at boosting public accessibility to court judgements, said Chief Justice Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif.
Speaking at the launch of www.judgements.my at Universiti Malaya here today, Raus added that the portal has been designated the official repository of Malaysian court judgements.
“The release of this portal is in line with the commitment made by the Malaysian Judiciary during the Judicial Year Ceremony this year, wherein I pledged to ensure transparency by ensuring court judgements is easily accessible to the public.
“This portal is also an initiative of the Malaysian Judiciary together with Asean Legal Information Centre and Malaysian Law Deans Council to provide easy access to reported Malaysian judgements, online, free of charge, accessible to all, from anywhere around the world.
“All court proceedings in the country, except for sensitive cases involving minors or sexual offences, are open to the general public. Judgements and orders are for all accounts and purposes, public information.
“The Malaysian Judgement Portal, in the long term, plans to provide an opportunity to local law students to get involved in editorially processing our judgements,” he said during the launch.
Rauf also commented that the portal will serve to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between the judiciary and the legal academia.
He said the Malaysian Judiciary also planned to expand the contents of the portal to include selected High Court judgements as well as judgements from quasi-judicial tribunals such as the Industrial Court.
“With the creation of this website, it is hoped that baseless criticism against court decisions will cease and the public will be able to increase their knowledge and understanding of the law and appreciate the reasoning employed in reported judgements before coming to their own conclusions,” he added.