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KUALA TERENGGANU - Syariah lawyers have been ticked off for being more interested in winning cases than helping the court to clear the backlogged ones.
Terengganu Syariah chief judge Ismail Yahya said there are too many backlogged cases in the syariah courts, especially those pertaining to inheritance, child custody and divorce.
He said the syariah lawyers should be helping to clear these cases.
The case of former Perlis mufti Dr Asri Zainul Abidin (seen here with former Perlis mentri besar Shahidan Kassim, left) was one of the high-profile syariah cases last year
“If syariah lawyers are engrossed in just ensuring victory for their clients, that will not help the court as it is guided by syarak rules,” he told reporters after receiving the QE-Quality Environment/5S certificate for the Terengganu Syariah Department here Thursday.
Causes of delay
Ismail said a study by the International Islamic University of Malaysia, the court was responsible for only 2% of backlogged cases.
“Other backlogged incidents occur when one party is not ready while, in some cases, they had to be differed midway as there are not enough witnesses," he said, adding that the syariah lawyers are also responsible for this state of affairs.
"They sometimes seek postponement not for two or three weeks but up to three months as they have other cases to attend to. This causes further delay,” he said, adding that there are 64 syariah lawyers in Terengganu.
Boosting staff morale
On the QE certificate, he said it would boost the morale of the state Syariah Department’s employees and enhance its image.
“We can see that the staff are putting more effort to improve the image of the department.
"For example, we were commended by clients for being able to register cases within four or five minutes and locate a record under 10 minutes,” he added.
Earlier recipients of the certificate were the Terengganu Land and Mines Department and the Kuala Terengganu City Council. - Malaysian Mirror
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