KOTA KINABALU: Seventy per cent of the cases relating to summonses issued by the City Hall have been resolved since the establishment of the City Court in 2007, according to Kota KInabalu Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir.
He said statistics from the City Court have shown that a total of 3,115 cases have been registered from the year of 2007 till April this year, with 70 per cent of those cases resolved.
“DBKK has also collected RM4,882,847 since 2006 until 2011 derived from the settlements of summonses and compound notices,” said Abidin yesterday when opening a legal seminar organised by DBKK here.
He said, the collections included the payments of fines imposed by the City Court and also on-the-spot payments by offenders or by those who had been given reasonable time to settle the summonses.
Some 100 participants from DBKK, Tuaran and Penampang district councils and the Ministry of Local Government and Housing attended the seminar.
Abidin said, so far only 54 cases have been registered with the City Court this year indicating a decrease compared to 357 cases in 2008, 1,096 cases in 2009 and 1,520 cases last year.
He said the increase in the number of cases filed followed the establishment of the City Court in the state capital.
He pointed out however, the sudden decrease in the number of cases filed in the City Court here this year was due to a case in Peninsular Malaysia where a challenge was made in the court to the effect that only the deputy public prosecutor (DPP) has the power to prosecute as provided for in the constitution.
Resulting therefrom, the Magistrate’s Court issued an order on June 29, 2009 that all charges filed in the City Court must have been endorsed by the public prosecutor.
The committee on Law and Enforcement Portfolio of DBKK, Abidin said, had discussed the matter with the Attorney General and the Attorney General had signified agreement to sign all charge sheets filed by DBKK in the City Court.
This arrangement has assisted DBKK to speed up the hearing of cases filed in the City Court and reduce delays in disposing the cases.