by Sylvia Lim, MP for Aljunied GRC and Chairman of Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council
[Delivered in Parliament on 21 Jan 2014]
I support this Bill.
This Bill brings three important changes which I believe will enhance confidence in the justice meted out by the lower courts.
First, a sitting member of the Supreme Court bench will now be the Presiding Judge of the re-named State Courts. This change will potentially promote closer links with the Supreme Court and tighten its supervisory role over the lower courts, as compared to the current system of having the Chief District Judge with no direct connection to the Supreme Court. Having a sitting member of the Supreme Court head the State Courts also enhances its standing as an institution which, after all, hears the vast majority of cases affecting Singaporeans.
The second change is that the qualifying criteria for appointment of District Judges will be raised. A person to be appointed as a District Judge will now need to have at least 7 years post-qualification experience rather than 5 years. The third change is that the qualifying criteria for appointment of Magistrates will also be raised. Instead of needing just one year’s post-qualification experience, a potential Magistrate will need to have 3 years’ experience.
The raising of the qualifying experience is desirable and indeed necessary, as the powers of District Judges and Magistrates to make orders and sentence persons have been increased significantly over the years. At the last debate on the Subordinate Courts Amendment Bill in 2010, I spoke in some detail about Magistrates and the concern about giving them powers to grant injunctions, and how some of their decisions can be un-appealable under the current rules. This is worrying if we only require Magistrates to have graduated just one year before. To this end, I am glad the government has reviewed this matter for both District Judges and Magistrates. I believe the public will also feel more confident appearing before judicial officers with longer working and life experience.