New Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof may not be known by many, except those in the legal fraternity, to whom he was a fair-minded judge when he was on the bench

When he was appointed a High Court judicial commissioner in 2008 and confirmed a year later, he was entrusted with what is now known as the Perak constitutional crisis case, involving Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin and Zambry Abdul Kadir.

However, before the start of the proceedings in February 2009, Ariff – then a judicial commissioner – declared to all parties his past involvement with PAS, a party Nizar represented in Pakatan Rakyat, and decided to recuse himself from the case...