Lee Swee Seng JCA (Majority):

[1] Statutory adjudication was not known until the coming into force of the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 ("CIPAA") on 15 April 2014. Before that the closest to statutory adjudication was contractual adjudication as may be found in the provisions of some industrial-based standard form construction contracts such as the FIDIC Construction Contract 2017 and the PAM Contract 2018.

[2] The appellant argued that the Court must uphold the freedom of contract especially in commercial matters such that if the parties had previously agreed to exhaust the pre-adjudication dispute resolution process before commencing arbitration, then they must be held to their bargain. After all any attempt to resolve a dispute amicably is to be encouraged and no serious prejudice would be caused to the party who wanted to commence statutory adjudication.

[3] The respondent who was the unpaid party in the construction contract argued that there should be no provision restricting, circumscribing or limiting statutory adjudication other than those that are prescribed under the CIPAA. The respondent further argued that to allow an injunction to stay