Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim presented instruments of appointment to two judges at Istana Negara, namely Court of Appeal judge Alice Loke Yee Ching and High Court judge Elaine Yap Chin Gaik.
The ceremony, held at the Dewan Singgahsana Kecil, was attended by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Chief Justice Tun Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, Court of Appeal President Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Jais, Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Hashim Hamzah and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Azizah Nawawi.
Loke, 64, was appointed Senior Federal Counsel in 2013 and served in the role until 2018 before becoming a judicial commissioner of the Shah Alam High Court on July 10, 2020.
She was elevated to High Court judge on Jan 17, 2023 and later appointed to the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s Special Powers Division on Aug 18, 2025.
Among the cases she has handled was former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s judicial review application concerning an alleged addendum order that would allow him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.
During her tenure as Senior Federal Counsel, Loke was also involved in proceedings involving the seizure of the Equanimity, the Sulu claims and claims against the Malaysian government over the disappearance of MH370.
Yap, 53, holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney and a diploma in international arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She was appointed judicial commissioner of the Shah Alam High Court on Aug 28, 2024 before taking up the same position at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov 3, 2025.
