KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 13): Umno lawyer Tania Scivetti has managed to hold off the Bar Council’s disciplinary proceedings against her from commencing on April 19, after obtaining a stay order from the High Court following her suit against the regulatory body.
Scivetti had on April 6 filed an originating summons against the Bar Council (Respondent 1), the Disciplinary Board of the Malaysian Bar (Respondent 2), and the Disciplinary Committee of Malaysian Bar (Respondent 3) for alleged bias, abuse of power and abuse of process which she claimed was tantamount to a transgression of her right to a fair hearing.
As such, Scivetti — who is part of the team representing Umno in the government’s forfeiture action against the party to retrieve alleged 1MDB monies — asked that the court declare the disciplinary proceedings instituted against her as illegal, null and void.
High Court judge Justice Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid today allowed Scivetti’s stay application after he fixed the dates for the respective parties to file their relevant documents before the suit’s hearing commences.
“The court hereby allows the applicant’s stay application for the proceedings before Respondent 3 (Disciplinary Committee of Malaysian Bar) on April 19, 2021 to be suspended until the disposal of this trial,” he said in court.
Justice Ahmad Kamal also fixed April 28 for case management to set the trial dates.
According to the affidavit in support of her suit, Scivetti — who is also the wife of senior lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who is currently leading the defence of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his 1MDB cases — was accused of having contravened Section 94(3)(i) of the Legal Professions Act (LPA) 1976, following a complaint made by the Secretary of the Advisory Board of the Prime Minister’s Office.
This section of the LPA relates to the offence of “allowing any unauthorised person to carry on legal business in his name without his direct and immediate control as principal or without proper supervision”.
The complaint was based on the hearing of a case involving Scivetti’s client named Azman Bahari, which was held before the Advisory Board of the Prime Minister’s Office on Nov 4, 2014.
“I affirm that I was not present at the time of the hearing as I had just delivered my baby by way of Caesarean section and was still in a period of confinement. Therefore, I have instructed two lawyers namely, Syazwani Binti Mohd Zawawi and Nor Rabiatul Binti Bahari from Messrs Scivetti & Associates to conduct the hearing,” she said in her affidavit.
Scivetti, however, noted that while the complaint was made in December 2014, the letter from the Bar Council requesting her explanation only came seven months later in July 2015.
Four months after that, the Bar Council found her guilty of five counts of offences of misconduct pursuant to Section 94(3), including dishonest and fraudulent conduct, as well as breach of rule of practice and etiquette of the profession made by the Bar Council.
Following the findings, a disciplinary committee was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the complaint against Scivetti.
However, she said a letter — dated Jan 21, 2021 and signed by Daljit Kaur Hari Singh, chairperson of the disciplinary committee — was only sent to her four years after the committee was formed, requesting her written explanation on the matter.
As such, Scivetti contended that the Disciplinary Board of Malaysian Bar should be barred from proceeding with the scheduled inquiry on April 19 and that the disciplinary process against her should be stopped altogether, as six years from the date of the action accrued had lapsed.
