Kho Jabing v Attorney-General
Jurisdiction | Singapore |
Court | Court of Three Judges (Singapore) |
Judge | Chao Hick Tin JA |
Judgment Date | 20 May 2016 |
Neutral Citation | [2016] SGCA 37 |
Citation | [2016] SGCA 37 |
Published date | 25 June 2016 |
Docket Number | Civil Appeal No 73 of 2016 |
Date | 20 May 2016 |
Plaintiff Counsel | Alfred Dodwell (Dodwell & Co LLC) (instructed), Chong Yean Yoong Jeannette-Florina (Archilex Law Corporation) |
Defendant Counsel | Francis Ng, Mohamed Faizal, and Zhuo Wenzhao (Attorney-General's Chambers) |
Hearing Date | 20 May 2016 |
Subject Matter | Equality before the law,Res judicata,Right to life and personal liberty,Fundamental liberties,Abuse of process,Protection against retrospective criminal laws,Constitutional Law |
We last saw the appellant yesterday. He had attended before us for the urgent hearing of his second application to set aside the sentence of death imposed on him. That application proceeded by way of a criminal motion to reopen a concluded criminal appeal and it had been filed on Wednesday evening. We heard his application and we dismissed it. After we delivered judgment in that matter, we learnt that yesterday morning – even before we had urgently convened to hear his second application – he had filed two separate originating summonses in the High Court seeking a series of declarations that various provisions in the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) and the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2012 (Act 32 of 2012) (“Amendment Act”) are unconstitutional. One originating summons was eventually withdrawn. We will come to the details shortly, but it suffices to say for now that he seeks these declarations in order that he might obtain a stay of execution of the sentence of death that is to be carried out today. Once again, an urgent hearing was convened and a Judicial Commissioner heard arguments late into the evening and at about 9.00pm last night, the Judicial Commissioner dismissed the application. An urgent appeal was filed at 10.19pm the same night. This is the appeal now before us.
This case has been about many things. But today, it is about the abuse of the process of the court. In a 19th century decision of the House of Lords called
… it would be a scandal to the administration of justice if, the same question having been disposed of by one case, the litigant were to be permitted by changing the form of the proceedings to set up the same case again.
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