Malaysia – A subject’s right of recourse to the courts is not to be taken away except by clear words. Where a statute provides that a decision is ‘final’, it is ordinarily taken to preclude a right of appeal except in cases where the tribunal has acted without jurisdiction or otherwise such that its decision is a nullity.
Lord Fraser of Tullybelton said: ‘[T]he final words ‘quashed or called in question in any court of law’ seemed to their Lordships to be clearly directed to certiorari. ‘Quashed’ is the word ordinarily used to describe the result of an order of certiorari, and it is not commonly used in connection with other forms of procedure (except in the quite different sense of quashing a sentence after conviction on a criminal charge). If ‘quashed’ were for some reason not enough, the expression ‘called in question in any court of law’ is in their Lordships opinion amply wide enough to include certiorari procedure.’
Judges:
Lord Fraser of Tullybelton
Citations:
[1980] UKPC 21, [1980] 3 WLR 318, [1980] 2 All ER 689, [1981] AC 363
Links:
Commonwealth, Constitutional
Updated: 19 September 2022; Ref: scu.444006