Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh v Public Prosecutor

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Andrew Phang Boon Leong JA
• Judgment Date: 02 July 2018
• Neutral Citation: [2018] SGCA 34
• Court: Court of Appeal (Singapore)
• Docket Number: Criminal Motion No 30 of 2017
• Year: 2018
• Published date: 06 July 2018
• Hearing Date: 02 July 2018
• Plaintiff Counsel: The applicant in person
• Defendant Counsel: Christopher Ong and Lee Ti-Ting (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Criminal Motion
• Citation: [2018] SGCA 34

Andrew Phang Boon Leong JA (delivering the judgment of the court ex tempore): Introduction

This is an application by Mr Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh (“the Applicant”) for an extension of time to apply to the High Court Judge (“the Judge”) who heard Criminal Revision No 3 of 2017 (“CR 3”) to reserve three alleged questions of law of public interest for the determination of this court.

Background

The Applicant is no stranger to our courts. In 2003, he was convicted of five charges of cheating in a District Court and sentenced to 12 years’ preventive detention. On appeal by the Prosecution, the High Court enhanced his sentence to 20 years’ preventive detention: see Public Prosecutor v Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh [2003] 4 SLR(R) 305.

Subsequently, between 2004 and 2008, the Applicant filed five criminal motions in the High Court, one criminal motion in the Court of Appeal and two criminal appeals. All these filings were aimed at reopening his conviction and sentence in 2003. Our courts dismissed all of these applications, issuing written reasons in four cases: see Salwant Singh v Public Prosecutor [2005] 1 SLR(R) 36 (“Salwant Singh (Documents)”), Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh v Public Prosecutor [2005] 1 SLR(R) 632 (“Salwant Singh (PTC Notes)”), Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh v Public Prosecutor [2008] SGHC 164 (“Salwant Singh (Review)”) and Salwant Singh s/o Amer Singh v Public Prosecutor [2009] 3 SLR(R) 105. It was expressly stated in two cases that the applications brought by the Applicant were vexatious and an abuse of process: see Salwant Singh (PTC Notes) at [18] and Salwant Singh (Review) at [14].

On 20 February 2017, the Applicant filed CR 3 seeking (1) the quashing of his conviction and sentence, (2) the revision of his sentence of preventive detention and (3) an order that would “end the many cycles of miscarriage of justice” that he had allegedly suffered.

On 14 July 2017, the Judge heard and dismissed CR 3 on the basis that it was an abuse of process, being yet another attempt by the Applicant to reopen his conviction and sentence.

Four months later, on 14 November 2017, the Applicant filed the present application for an extension of time to bring a criminal reference.

The application for leave to file supplemental affidavits

The Applicant also applied for leave to file two supplemental affidavits. In these affidavits, he invited us to exercise our inherent power of review to reopen his conviction and...