His wife, Nurmala Raya Julihi, said Kadir succumbed to a lung infection on Wednesday night at Sungai Buloh Hospital after being admitted for nine days.
“He was raring to leave the hospital as he loved to walk around shopping centres, which helped him keep fit,” she told FMT.
Federal Court judge Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal described Kadir as a “very good and decent man”.
Senior lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said Kadir was an exemplary judge who displayed all the best judicial qualities.
“We have lost another great judicial mind. He was patient and courteous and gave parties a good hearing when leading the bench in the Court of Appeal,” he said.
Kadir, who was elevated to the Federal Court seven months before his retirement in 2005, was named a “musketeer” along with the late Gopal Sri Ram and Alaudeen Sheriff, as they were frequently empanelled to sit together on the Court of Appeal.
In their time, the trio dished out several landmark judgments.
Following his elevation to the apex court, the lanky but soft-spoken Kadir described the “special promotion” as a “miracle” and attributed it to the grace of God. He had been overlooked for promotion on several occasions previously.
In 2009, the Court of Appeal ruled that then Perak menteri besar Nizar Jamaluddin had lost the confidence of the majority in the Perak state assembly even without a vote being taken on the floor of the state assembly.
Constitutional lawyers say the decision, affirmed by the Federal Court one year later, was inspired by a landmark case Kadir presided over 14 years earlier.
In 1995, Kadir, sitting in the Kota Kinabalu High Court, had presided over a case between Amir Kahar Tun Datu Mustapha and then Sabah governor Said Keruak.
Sabah chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan had resigned from office and a new chief minister was appointed. However, Amir Kahar, who was Pairin’s deputy, refused to relinquish his position.
In a statement of opinion not essential to the ultimate decision itself, known in law as an obiter dictum, Kadir said evidence that a chief minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority members of the assembly is not confined to a vote in the assembly but can be inferred from “other extraneous sources”.
Born in Sungai Petani, Kedah, Kadir began as a labour officer but later graduated from Middle Temple in London in 1971.
He went on to become a deputy public prosecutor, federal counsel, sessions court president and Industrial Court chairman, before rising to become a judge of the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
After leaving the bench, he served on an advisory council to the regent of Terengganu when Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin reigned as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong between 2006 and 2011.
He was also Pakatan Harapan’s candidate for the post of Dewan Rakyat speaker in 2013, but lost to Pandikar Amin Mulia.
He was also appointed a member of the royal commission of inquiry on Teoh Beng Hock’s death and was also a member of the Malaysian anti-corruption transformation executive committee.