The office of Lord President of the Federal Court was created with the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
The first Lord President of the Federal Court was Tun Sir James Thomson, previously Chief Justice of Malaya, and a Scotsman.
In 1988, Lord President Tun Salleh Abas was brought before a tribunal convened by the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the grounds of misconduct.
The Supreme Court in the years leading up to 1988 had been fiercely independent and increasingly active, and was at the time due to hear an appeal to determine the future of the ruling party UMNO, which had been declared an illegal society by the High Court of Malaya on the grounds of procedural irregularity.
The 1988 constitutional crisis was widely considered to be the greatest blow to judicial independence in Malaysian history, and at the time led to the Bar Council of Malaysia refusing to recognise the new Lord President.