Zaharah binti Ibrahim

On the judicial record

A Federal Court judge whose reported corpus settles apex-level questions across construction adjudication, administrative law, trademark, banking and constitutional law.

Justice Zaharah binti Ibrahim sits in the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), Malaysia's apex court, and the reported decisions in this corpus resolve questions of general importance across construction, administrative, commercial and constitutional law. A significant construction decision concerns an adjudication award under the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 and whether a jurisdictional challenge may be made at any time by application or only on an application to set aside the award — a question central to the operation of the statutory payment regime.

Administrative and professional-regulation questions recur, including judicial review of the disciplinary process of a cooperative's disciplinary committee and whether it complied with the governing regulations, and the constitutional right of a dismissed public servant to appeal to an appeal board. Bankruptcy and insolvency feature through whether a personal claim for wrongful termination requires the prior sanction of the Director-General of Insolvency to prosecute an appeal.

Commercial and constitutional questions round out a wide docket. Trademark law appears through an opposition to registration and whether the High Court exercised original or appellate jurisdiction; constitutional law through the constitutionality of sections 56 and 57 of the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009 tested against Article 74 of the Federal Constitution; and banking law through whether a bank that honoured a forged cheque presented by a surviving joint-account holder was absolved of liability. International arbitration arises on whether matters under one contract could be arbitrated in the proceedings of another and the choice of judicial seat, and native customary rights over Sarawak forest land also feature, as does whether a consent judgment may release one party from its mutual obligations without releasing the other. The decisions reflect an apex-court judge settling foundational points across several fields for the guidance of the courts below, where each ruling fixes the governing rule for the legal system rather than merely disposing of the parties' immediate dispute, and where the interpretation of statutory language carries decisive weight.