His daughter, Nadjihah, said Dzaiddin was admitted to a private hospital here two days ago due to heart complications.

“He passed away this evening. He will be buried at the Bukit Kiara cemetery tomorrow before Friday prayers,” she told FMT.

Dzaiddin is survived by his wife Tengku Noriah Tengku Ismail and two children – Nadjihah and Azlan.

He was born in Arau, Perlis, on Sept 16, 1937 and received his primary education in Arau and later entered the Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Setar, Kedah.

He was called to the English Bar on July 19, 1966 and the Malaysian Bar on Jan 28, 1967.

Dzaiddin was a reporter with The Malay Mail from 1956 to September 1957 and then joined the police force as an inspector with the Special Branch.

He left in 1962 to read law in London and was in private practice before he was elevated to the bench. He is also a former vice-president of the Malaysian Bar.

Dzaiddin was appointed a High Court judge on Oct 1, 1982 and a Supreme Court judge on Dec 18, 1992.

He was the nation’s top judge between Dec 20, 2000 and March 14, 2003. Upon retirement, he was appointed a legal consultant at Skrine.

Malaysiakini quoted him as saying in an interview on the eve of his leaving office that his 20 years as a judge was very much shaped by his years as a journalist and a policeman.

“Those years helped a lot … you can see how lucid my judgments have been. I followed my mentor, the late Suffian (Hashim), who asked me not to write judgments for judges and academics but more for lay people,” he said.

“The experience as a police officer developed self-discipline in me.”

On Feb 4, 2004, Dzaiddin was appointed by the Yang di Pertuan Agong as chairman of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police.

The commission’s report was submitted to the government on April 30, 2005 and contained 125 recommendations, the core proposal being the establishment of a body called the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).