Category: Administrative law
Bukit Brown Cemetery: You Can Sue, but You Won’t Win
A statue of a sepoy guarding a tomb in Bukit Brown Cemetery. (Photograph © 2011 Jack Tsen-Ta Lee.)
Jack Tsen-Ta Lee
Assistant Professor of Law
School of Law, SMU
THE CAUSE CÉLÈBRE that is Bukit Brown Cemetery has galvanized numerous civil society groups into calling for its preservation. They are responding to the Ministry of National Development’s decision to build a road across the historic burial ground to ease traffic congestion along Lornie Road and the Pan Island Expressway during peak hours, and to allow for future traffic growth.
Can an application be made to the High Court for judicial review against the MND to prevent it from constructing the planned eight-lane highway? This is a question of administrative law – the branch of law relating to how one sues the Government when it is alleged to have acted unlawfully. The remedies that might be sought include a quashing order to cancel the original decision, and a mandatory order to require the MND to reconsider its decision, relying on the correct legal principles. Continue reading
Hougang By-election Case: The State of Play
A view of the Supreme Court Building (with disc) with Parliament House in the foreground. On 9 April 2012 the High Court, which sits in the building, issued the grounds of its decision in the Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v Attorney-General, the Hougang by-election case. (© 2010 Jack Tsen-Ta Lee.)
Jack Tsen-Ta Lee
Assistant Professor of Law
School of Law, SMU
ON 9 APRIL, Justice Philip Pillai, sitting in the High Court, released the grounds for his decision for granting leave – that is, permission – for Mdm Vellama Marie Muthu’s judicial review application in the Hougang by-election case. She had applied for a declaration that the Prime Minister does not have unfettered discretion when deciding whether or not a by-election should be called in Hougang Single Member Constituency, and a mandatory order requiring the PM to advise the President to call a by-election within three months or some other reasonable time determined by the court.
A mandatory order is a type of prerogative order. Prerogative orders, formerly called prerogative writs, were so called because at first they could only be issued at the prerogative of the British Crown. However, by the end of the 16th century, any aggrieved citizen could ask for them to be issued.
An application for one or more prerogative orders is made pursuant to Order 53 of the Rules of Court, and is a two-stage process. The hearing before Justice Pillai was the first stage. Here, what the applicant had to do was to seek leave to apply for a mandatory order. Why is this stage necessary? As the judge pointed out, it is “intended to be a means of filtering out groundless or hopeless cases at an early stage, and its aim is to prevent a wasteful use of judicial time and to protect public bodies from harassment (whether intentional or otherwise) that might arise from a need to delay implementing decisions, where the legality of such decisions is being challenged”.[1] Continue reading
Let presidential hopefuls have their say
A sign at one of the nomination centres used during the 2011 general election. Nomination day for the presidential election is 17 August 2011. (© 2011 Jack Tsen-Ta Lee.)
Jack Tsen-Ta Lee
Assistant Professor of Law
School of Law, SMU
TWO DAYS AGO [August 11, 2011], the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) issued certificates of eligibility to four of the six prospective candidates who applied to contest the presidential election. We are thus assured of a poll for the first time in 18 years, and with the largest number of candidates to date.
The PEC’s announcement of its decisions makes interesting reading for what it does and does not say. It allows observers to examine how the Committee goes about fulfilling its crucial duty.
The Committee consists of the Chairmen of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), and a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights (PCMR) nominated by the Council’s Chairman. The Government’s power over the PEC’s composition is regulated to an extent, as the outgoing President had personal discretion to veto appointments of unsuitable persons as PSC Chairman, and as the Chairman and members of the PCMR.
Nonetheless, how the PEC carries out its task can be improved. Continue reading
