Application made by the defendant Secretary of State to strike out the Particulars of Claim (POC) and enter judgment for the Defendant pursuant to CPR 3(4) because they disclose no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim. The claim was that: ‘ that the interests of the Indian (mainly Tamil speaking) population of Malaysia were ignored during the period 1944 to 1957 when independence was agreed with a constitution that provided for an entrenched privileged position for the ethnically Malay community. It is contended that the community of mainly Tamil indentured labourers worked on British owned estates and mines. They did not speak the Malay language and many were illiterate and undocumented. They either did not have the right to vote in the emerging democracy after the Second World War or were not registered to vote and in any event were not politically organised or represented. As British subjects or protected persons before the coming in to force of the British Nationality Act 1948, and because the British government were aware of their vulnerable status it is contended that they were entitled to the special protection of the colonial power to safeguard their interests when sovereignty was ceded. It is then contended that this duty of protection was not property discharged, leaving them in a vulnerable position after independence from which each of the claimants has suffered with respect to access to higher education, employment in government, ownership of land, conducting business, the security of Hindu religious land and cemeteries and personal status with respect to registration of marriage and acquisition of citizenship.’
Judges:
Blake J
Citations:
[2015] EWHC 1760 (QB)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Human Rights, Constitutional
Updated: 21 June 2022; Ref: scu.549245
