He said the trial judge would have to decide the case on the basis of facts and the law.
“It is unfair at this juncture to speculate why the previous judge was replaced,” Zainur told FMT.
He was commenting on reports last week that Justice Zaki Abdul Wahab had been assigned to hear the suit, taking over from Justice S Nantha Balan.
Lawyer Melissa Sasidaran, who is appearing for Maria, said they received a letter from the High Court registry saying that the decision to change the judge came from Federal Court judge Justice Azahar Mohamed who is the managing judge of the high courts in Kuala Lumpur.
Retired judges Gopal Sri Ram and Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus said the practice of having managing judges to supervise High Court judges was against the law.
Both agreed that what was being done now amounted to an interference in the independence of the judges in the High Court as they were supposed to be left to manage their own court.
They said the immediate superior of the High Court judges, the Chief Judge of Malaya or the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, should not interfere with the assignment of cases, such as transferring files from one judge to another.
Gopal added that the current practice of having managing judges from the Federal Court or Court of Appeal to oversee High Court judges was against Section 20 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 (CoJA).
Hishamudin, who is a retired Court of Appeal judge, said Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria should put a stop to this practice and the law should be upheld.
Zainur, who declined to comment on the procedural aspects as voiced out by the two former judges, said defamation suits were not that complex and the legal principles were quite clear.
“These days there are many cases of that nature and any judge is competent to hear the suit,” he added.
Zainur said an aggrieved party had one automatic right of appeal to the Court of Appeal and the suit could progress further to the Federal Court if leave to appeal was allowed.
He said public opinion on this issue was important but “sometimes the people did not understand the workings of the law.”
Meanwhile, senior lawyer Bastian Vendargon said even the immediate superior of High Court judges did not enter into the judicial process because of the concept of independence of the judiciary as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
“The superior (the Chief Judge of Malaya or the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak) could only interfere into the administrative aspects only,” he said, referring to issues such as human resources and the clearing of case backlogs.
Bastian agreed that managing judges could not feature in the present system as it overrides the roles and functions of chief judges.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Bar President Steven Thiru has yet to respond to a Whatsapp message sent yesterday while the Federal Court’s corporate communication unit head Suzarika Sahak said a response would be made available soon.