According to several members in the judicial fraternity, Yeo died this afternoon, three days after he was admitted to Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

The cause of death was not revealed.

Yeo, who hailed from Bahau, Negeri Sembilan, is survived by his wife and three children.

Yeo read law at Universiti Malaya and became a judicial and legal service officer in 1984.

He remained in the service for 24 years, after which he served as chairman of the Industrial Court from 2009 to 2015.

Yeo was then appointed chairman of the finance ministry’s Customs Appeal Tribunal for two years before becoming the Industrial Court president from September 2017 to August 2020.

He went back to practising law before becoming a judicial commissioner in 2024.

Lawyer T Thavalingam said Yeo was a versatile judicial manager and that his death came as a shock to him.

The senior lawyer said Yeo brought about many changes at the Industrial Court during his tenure as president.

“A task force was set up where retired chairmen and senior lawyers were brought in to clear the backlog of cases,” he said.

Lawyer Shukor Ahmad said Yeo had a good temperament as a judge and gave lawyers a fair hearing, irrespective of the outcome.

“His untimely death leaves a vacuum,” he said.