TNAG-0398-FCO40-444-Appointments-to-supreme-and-district-courts-from-the-Bar-in--1973 — Page 21

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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

OCT

24th

73.

'Scandalous'

A retired Lord Justice or Law Lord may be invited from London to investigate the "scandalous judicial system” in the Colony.

The warning was enclosed in a statement issued by the Bar Association yesterday supporting criticisms by a Puisne Judge, Mr Justice Simon Li, that the Government was discriminating against local civil servants.

Describing the Colony's judicial system as scandalous, a' spokesman for the Association said that “in effect the Magistracy and Judiciary in Hongkong are equated with the /civil service."

He noted that a number of magistrates and judges were employed on contract which need not be renewed by the Crown.

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"This is wholly contrary to the judicial concept of the status of immutability which is fundamental the British judicial system. Security of tenure is essential to judicial independence.

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"The ludicrous position of the Judiciary can easily be seen by the fact that District Court judges and magistrates compelled to retire at 55, whereas they cannot achieve their full pension rights until they have been in Government service for 33 years and three months.

"This means that unless a person joins the magistracy at the tender age of 21 years and nine months, no District Court judge or magistrate can achieve his full pensionable rights.

"Compare the position in England, where no person may be appointed a magistrate unless he has been a barrister or solicitor of at least seven years' standing, and the fact that in England the average age of appointment of all judges is 53, whereas judges of the District Court in Hongkong are compelled to retire at 55.

"The retirement age of a magistrate in England is 70, and that of a Circuit Judge, the equivalent of the District Judge, is 72.

"Again members of the judiciary in England, unlike the civil service, reach their full pensionable rights after 15 years."

The spokesman pointed out that the Government "only pays lip service to the concept of the independence of the Judiciary, which, in Hongkong, is, in truth and in fact, a Government department whose members are subject to the Colonial and Establishment

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like all civil

"As Mr Justice Li said on a previous occasion, 'the Hongkong, Executive treats the judiciary with contempt" а sentiment with which most practising lawyers would agree.

"What a scrious condemnation of the Executive by one of Her Majesty's judges which, had the statement been made in England, would have had serious repercussions in Parliament."

The spok¬sman concluded that the Bar and other legal bodies "have been giving very serious consideration to inviting someone, possibly a retired Lord Justice or Law Lord to come to Hongkong."

"He will see for himself the true position and to report back to the British Government about the quality, qualifications, training, terms of service, status, retiring ages, pensionable rights, and measures of independence of the

Magistracy and the Judiciary and the question of separation of Magistracy and Judiciary from the civil service and the unnatural bonds of the Colonial and Establishment Regulations."

The criticisms made by Mr Justice Li mainly dealt with the length of annual leave between expatriates and local officers.

The only Chinese Puisne judge said that he only got 27 days each year whereas his expatriate colleagues got 45 days.

"And the expatriates get their passages paid by the Government something to which I am not entitled.'

Mr Justice Li, who was Chairman of the Senior Non- Expatriate Staff Association in the 1960's and at present its Adviser, said that he had been fighting for the "full-parity benefits" for the past 20 years.

"We did not achieve anything during my term of office. It was a matter of timing

the Government made ¡ concessions from time to time.

"They (the Government) held tight to their policy and are still maintaining it" he said.

The present Chairman, Mr Kenneth Mok, said he welcomed any suggestion that would help implement his association's policy "to narrow the gap between expatriates and senior non-expatriate officers in their terms of conditions of service."

"We are still trying to get a full-parity of working conditions for local officers.

"We are at

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system in HK

condemned

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with exchanging ideas Government in our negotiations to get localisation, leave, passages and housing for officers below the Point of Incorporation."

Mr Mok pointed out that there had been some achievements in the association's efforts, with a major breakthrough in the field of housing that extended to 60 per cent of its members.

! "Before March, 1970, officers below the Senior Professional Grade but above the Point of Incorporation were not entitled to housing allowances.

"Now they are enjoying it. "In 1971. the Salaries

• Commission recommended that a senior non-expatriate officer attending a course of instruction' or a conference for more than 12 weeks be entitled to take his wife along with the passage being paid for by the Government.

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"This has been implement- ed.

"And overseas, as well as local education allowances, are now given to local officers."

Neither the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Briggs, nor the Government would comment on the criticisms yesterday.

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