Azahar bin Mohamed

On the judicial record

A Federal Court judge whose reported corpus settles foundational questions of constitutional, commercial and procedural law, from the Islamic-banking provisions of the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009 to the limits of judicial intervention in arbitration.

Justice Azahar bin Mohamed sits in the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), Malaysia's apex court, and the reported decisions in this corpus resolve constitutional, commercial and procedural questions of general importance. Constitutional law features prominently, including a decision on the constitutionality of sections 56 and 57 of the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009 — the provisions governing references to the Shariah Advisory Council in Islamic-banking disputes — tested against Article 74 of the Federal Constitution and the separation of the judicial power.

Arbitration and civil procedure are well represented. One decision concerns whether the Court of Appeal erred in setting aside an injunction, granted to a non-party, that had restrained an arbitration from continuing, engaging the court's power to intervene in the arbitral process. Contempt of court is examined in a decision on the offence of scandalising contempt arising from the provision of material for published articles. Insolvency and partnership questions arise, including whether a winding-up petition may be presented by a partnership and the position where a money judgment has multiple petitioning creditors and the debt is paid to one of them.

The corpus also engages defamation, through the settled ambit of the defence of fair comment; legal professional privilege, and whether its breach gives rise to a cause of action for an injunction; and the right of the Government to sue in defamation, examined against the application of the common law and the Government Proceedings framework. Administrative-law questions include a challenge to a decision of the Director-General of National Registration concerning the entry of a father's name in a child's birth register, and the scope of the Government's statutory right to sue where the common law and rules of equity apply alongside written law. The decisions reflect an apex-court judge resolving foundational questions of public and commercial law for the guidance of the courts below, where each ruling settles the governing principle rather than merely disposing of the parties' dispute.