On 6 May, the Shah Alam Coroner’s Court commenced an inquiry into what were reported as suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Shintumathi Mutusamy.
It was reported that prior to the proceedings, her family’s counsel made requests for the disclosure of documents – which requests they were entitled to make as counsel – but those documents were not provided.
Her family’s counsel then made an application before the coroner’s court, but that application was denied, and the counsel was then ejected from the court. The inquiry proceeded without the family’s counsel being present.
A coroner’s court exists for an important purpose, which is to determine what happened to the deceased in sudden, suspicious or unexplained deaths. The family’s counsel is essential in these proceedings, which is to look after the interests of those who engaged him.
The counsel was removed for acting in the interests of his clients, ie he made an application permitted and demanded by law, in the interests of natural justice, but this was dismissed, and he was removed.
There is a practice direction, namely practice direction No 2 of 2019, issued by the then-chief justice of Malaysia, which gives the family the right to apply for disclosure, and such disclosure should generally be made.
To deny disclosure and order the removal of counsel is a breach of natural justice and the constitutional right to counsel, which constitutes a miscarriage of justice that calls into question the very validity and integrity of the coroner’s inquiry itself.
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Any violation of the right to counsel is an affront to the rule of law. A lawyer must be allowed to discharge his or her duty and act without fear or favour, in the interests of their client. – Bar
Anand Raj is the president of Malaysian Bar.
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