A five-member Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Richard Malanjum said Lingam had failed to meet the threshold for review under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules.

This rule for review is only applicable if the applicant can show that there was injustice or abuse of court process in a ruling.

Malanjum said the provision relied on by Lingam under the Rules of Court 2012 was not applicable in his case.

The others on the bench were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak David Wong Dak Wah, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Idrus Harun.

Lingam had applied for the review and for the conviction and sentence to be set aside on grounds that the previous bench was biased and acted against the rules of natural justice.

He was represented in court today by lawyer R Thayalan although he himself was absent.

Lingam, who was implicated in a judicial fixing case by a Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2007, had been skipping court over the contempt charge since 2013.

He is currently believed to be in the US, and is barred from practice for professional misconduct.

On Nov 14, 2017, a five-man Federal Court bench chaired by Abu Samah Nordin meted out the jail term after concluding that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.

In submission today, Thayalan said the contempt hearing and punishment was handed down in Lingam’s absence, as he was overseas due to a medical condition.

“The bench that found Lingam guilty also did not consider his defence. Some of the judges were biased as they were also involved in other contempt proceedings against persons whom Lingam represented,” he added.

However, senior federal counsel Alice Yoke said Order 32 of the Rules of Court only applied to proceedings in chambers, not open court hearings.

She said the court’s decision to revisit its earlier decision should not be used liberally, but sparingly and only in exceptional cases.

“In this case, the applicant (Lingam) failed to show that he falls within exceptional grounds for a review,” she said.

The contempt case came about after Lingam appeared for clients consisting of family members in a civil suit.

Following a Federal Court decision against his clients, Lingam filed a review of the ruling on grounds that the judgment was plagiarised.

Lingam, the 24 family members, and another lawyer, TC Nayagam, were charged with contempt.

The family members were fined RM100,000 each while Nayagam was fined RM150,000 after pleading guilty to the charge.