Nallini Pathmanathan

Yang Arif Tan Sri Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan PSM PMW
Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 November 2018
Monarchs	Muhammad V (2018-2019) Abdullah (2019–2024) Ibrahim Iskandar (since 2024)
Prime Minister	Najib Razak (2018-2019) Mahathir Mohamad (2019–2020) Muhyiddin Yassin (2020–2021) Ismail Sabri Yaakob (2021–2022) Anwar Ibrahim (since 2022)
Personal details
Born	Nallini Pathmanathan (1959-08-23) 23 August 1959 Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia)
Citizenship	Malaysia
Alma mater	University of London (BSc) University of Westminster (Diploma)
Profession	Lawyer

Nallini Pathmanathan (born 23 August 1959) is a Malaysian lawyer who has served as a judge of the Federal Court of Malaysia since November 2018. She is the first female judge of South Asian ethnicity to be elevated to the highest judicial office in Malaysia.

Early life and education

Coming from a family consisting largely of doctors, Nallini initially wished to study medicine. However, she was unable to do so and opted to pursue a degree in physiology.

Nallini graduated from the University of London with a Bachelors of Science (BSc) in Physiology in 1982. Upon finishing, she realised that she did not want to further a career in Physiology. On her father's suggestion, she began a law conversion course at the University of Westminster in 1983 and obtained a Diploma in Law. Subsequently, she was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1984 and to the Malaysian Bar on 15 February 1986.

Career

Nallini commenced legal practice in 1986 with Skrine, a law firm in Malaysia, and in 1995, became a partner at the firm. She served as the chairman of the executive committee of Skrine for a few years.

After being appointed as a judicial commissioner on 1 March 2007, Nallini served at the Shah Alam High Court in Selangor. On 14 October 2009, she was elevated as a High Court judge, and served at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. Then, she was elevated as a judge of the Court of Appeal of Malaysia on 12 September 2014. On 26 November 2018, Nallini was appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of Malaysia. She became the first female judge of South Asian ethnicity to become a judge at the superior courts of Malaysia.

Nallini served on committees of the Malaysian Bar Council and was a member of the Disciplinary Committee Panel of the Advocates & Solicitors Disciplinary Board. As of 2007, she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She is also the chairperson of the Malaysian Middle Temple Alumni Association. She is also the secretary of the Judges' Forum of the International Bar Association.

In 2023, Nallini was appointed to Malaysia's Judicial Appointments Committee for a two-year term. The Judicial Appointments Committee also identified Nallini as a potential candidate for the role of Chief Judge of Malaya, the third highest judicial office in the country.

Notable cases

In February 2021, Nallini was part of a seven-member Federal Court bench presiding over a high-profile case aimed at determining if the news portal Malaysiakini, and its editor-in-chief, were guilty of contempt of court over the publication of readers' contemptuous comments. She was the sole dissenter to the decision to impose a RM500,000 fine on the news portal, stating that the applicant (the Attorney General of Malaysia) had failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that both Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief knew of said comments and intentionally wanted to publish them.

In November 2021, a five-member panel of the Federal Court, which Nallini was a part of, granted Malaysian citizenship to a 17-year-old stateless teenager who was born in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur and adopted by a Malaysian couple.

In April 2022, Nallini was part of a three-member bench which rendered a unanimous decision to reject an appeal by a Muslim-convert mother and the Federal Territory Registrar of Muallaf to reinstate her unilateral conversion of her two children to Islam. This was in line with a previous Federal Court ruling that the consent of both parents was required before a child born in a civil marriage could be converted to Islam.

In January 2023, Nallini led a five-member panel of the Federal Court in unanimously dismissing two appeals challenging the Election Commission of Malaysia's decision to hold the 15th Malaysian general election in November 2022.

In January 2023, Nallini was part of a three-member bench chaired by the current Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, which unanimously dismissed an application to appeal and challenge the legality of a royal pardon granted to the current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, in 2018.

In August 2023, Nallini and two other Federal Court judges, as part of a three-member panel, unanimously allowed Sisters in Islam (SIS Forum Malaysia) to proceed with its appeal against a fatwa issued by the Selangor religious authorities which labelled the organisation as deviant from Islamic teachings.

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

• Malaysia :
  • Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (PSM) – Tan Sri (2023)
• Federal Territory (Malaysia) :
  • Commander of the Order of the Territorial Crown (PMW) – Datuk (2014)