'SELAMAT DATANG KE BLOG 'PUSAT MAKLUMAT RAKYAT KUCHING'

Kami menyediakan bahan maklumat mengenai dasar-dasar kerajaan serta perkhidmatan internet bagi para pelanggan.

LEAVING THIS BLOG NOW...................

As I will be on a long months' holidays starting 7th July 2010 prior to my retirement in October 2010, I will suspend my service in updating my blog on daily issues or facts of interest.

I would like to thanks everyone for having the interest in surfing my blog and sharing the thoughts with me.

Thank you to everyone.


Friday, November 20, 2009

No grilling after office hours, rules court

The Malay­sian Anti-Corruption Commis­sion cannot interrogate witnes­ses beyond office hours, the High Court has declared in a landmark ruling.

Witnesses can only be questioned from 8.30am to 5.30pm each day, High Court (Appellate and Special Powers Division) judge Justice Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said when allowing an application by businessman Tan Boon Wah, who had filed an originating summons on July 22 against the commission and two others, over whether witnesses could be questioned out­side office hours.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said he would definitely appeal the ruling and that two officers have been as­signed to study the decision.

In making his ruling, Justice Mohamad Ariff cited Section 30 (3)(a) of the MACC Act which states that any person or­­dered to attend an examination shall continue to do so from day to day, where so directed until the examination is completed.

“It is fair to conclude that the phrase ‘day-to-day’ raises an ambiguity.

“This court has to interpret that phrase so as to avoid an absurd result. The phrase admit­tedly is not defined anywhere in the MACC Act,” Justice Moha­mad Ariff said yesterday.

He said “day-to-day,” in the context of the Act, could not mean or connote the power or ability to conduct investigations round-the-clock.

“This is also the meaning to

be ascribed to the forms of subpoena and their mention of ‘day-to-day’ until the end of proceedings. Since that phrase cannot mean an unending 24-hour day, ‘day’ must relate to normal working hours,” he added.

In the test case, Tan, who is a Kajang municipal councillor, also named MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan and Selangor MACC assistant superintendent Mohammad Hassan Zulkifli as defendants.

Tan, 39, was summoned by the MACC on July 15 to assist into investigations of alleged mis­­use of allocations by several state assemblymen.

He is also said to be the last person to have seen DAP political secretary Teoh Beng Hock alive at the MACC office in Shah Alam.

Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor of the building on July 16 and an inquest into his death is ongoing at the Shah Alam Coroner’s Court.

Justice Mohamad Ariff said he agreed with Tan’s contention that he had been unlawfully detained beyond office hours at the MACC headquarters on July 15 and the next day.

He ordered the defendants to pay damages to Tan for false im­­prisonment between 9.45pm on July 15 and 2.53am the next day.

He also ordered for an inquiry to be held by a senior assistant registrar to determine interest for the damages.

StarOnline 20/11/09

No comments: