KETUA PENGARAH JABATAN INSOLVENSI MALAYSIA

On the court record

Illustrates how the courts supervise liquidation and bankruptcy administration, resolve the removal and conduct of liquidators, and locate the statutory insolvency office within contested civil proceedings.

The Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Insolvensi Malaysia (the Director General of Insolvency) appears in this corpus as the statutory office at the centre of bankruptcy and liquidation administration, in positions that include respondent, judgment debtor, defendant and intervener rather than that of an ordinary commercial litigant. In company matters the Director General features where the removal of a liquidator is sought following a winding-up order and where the conduct of a company's directors and the administration of the winding up are in issue. In bankruptcy matters the office appears in proceedings under the Insolvency Act 1967 — the record cites sections 8(1)(b) and 60 — and where questions arise about the administration of a bankrupt's estate and the priorities among creditors, including the treatment of trust moneys along the lines discussed in the well-known authority on that subject. The corpus also includes disputes in which the Director General is joined because the outcome affects an estate under administration, such as a claim to enforce a lien-holder's caveat over property forming part of an estate, a writ action naming the office as a co-defendant, and applications to strike out proceedings under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012. Because the office administers the insolvency regime rather than pursuing a claim of its own, its participation is directed at protecting the estate and giving effect to the statutory scheme. The matters are decided principally in the High Court, with an appeal to the Court of Appeal. Collectively the decisions in which the Director General of Insolvency is a party illustrate how the courts supervise liquidation and bankruptcy administration, resolve the removal and conduct of liquidators, and locate the statutory insolvency office within contested civil proceedings. Several of the reported matters also concern the competing claims of secured creditors, lien-holders and the general body of creditors to property forming part of an estate, and the priorities the insolvency legislation establishes among them. Across these decisions the office appears as the statutory administrator charged with holding the ring between creditors and giving effect to the insolvency regime.