Haidar Mohd Noor CJ (Malaya):

I have had the benefit of reading the judgments in draft of my learned brothers, Abdul Malek Ahmad, FCJ and Abdul Hamid Mohamad, JCA and agreed with them. I have nothing further to add.

Abdul Malek Ahmad FCJ:

The facts are actually not in dispute. As deposed by the respondent in his affidavit in support of his application on 6 May 1995 to declare himself as the beneficial owner of a Honda Accord 2.0 Ex(i) bearing registration number NAJ 1912 (hereinafter "the said motor vehicle"), one Dewarajoo a/l Gurusamy (hereinafter "Dewarajoo") had shown him the said motor vehicle on 24 January 1994 which he had agreed to purchase. On the next day, he had taken the said motor vehicle to a motor workshop at the Mobil petrol station in Jalan Yong Shook Lin, Petaling Jaya to have it examined.

There, both he and the mechanic had, apart from examining the said motor vehicle, checked both the engine and chassis numbers and found that they tallied with the details in the registration card of the said motor vehicle. The engine number was MA 1A5-571289 and the chassis number was CB 3-7036281.

Only then was the purchase price agreed at RM70,000. On 27 January 1994, the respondent paid Dewarajoo RM10,000 and a receipt was accordingly issued. The respondent was also given the registration card.

From the details in the registration card, it is clear that Dewarajoo had bought the said motor vehicle from F & C Motor Sdn Bhd in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and the previous registration number of the said motor vehicle was SS 9554C. Earlier to that, the registered owner was Chin Hook Kee with a post box address in Sandakan, Sabah.

According to Dewarajoo, he worked as a motor vehicle vendor and had paid a deposit to F & C Motor Sdn Bhd. He was given a time period to sell the said motor vehicle failing which the motor vehicle was to be returned and the deposit forfeited. To overcome the situation, a loan was obtained from Hong Leong Finance Berhad, formerly known as Visia Finance Bhd, in the name of Pritam Singh as the registered owner after Dewarajoo.

To get the loan from Hong Leong Finance Berhad, the purchase price was increased to RM76,000 and the respondent obtained a loan of RM60,000 by way of a hire purchase agreement dated 2 February 1994. The said motor vehicle was registered in his name on 4 February 1994 after the loan from Hong Leong Finance Bhd had been fully settled.

It was subsequently discovered by the Road Transport Department, Seremban (hereinafter "the second appellant") that a syndicate in Sabah was responsible for falsifying and forging motor vehicle registration numbers, chassis numbers and engine numbers registered in that State but eventually brought into West Malaysia and this included the said motor vehicle purchased by the respondent.

Accordingly, the said motor vehicle was detained by the police (hereinafter "the first appellant") on 28 April 1994 at 11pm and kept in the Petaling Jaya Police Station for further investigations. The respondent was told that the said motor vehicle was stolen property. He brought the police to Dewarajoo's house and Dewarajoo was accordingly arrested.

The Chemistry Department certified that the said motor vehicle's engine number had been tampered with but the original number and the original owner could not be ascertained. In the circumstances, the said motor vehicle was released to the respondent on bond pursuant to s. 413 of the Criminal Procedure Code (hereinafter "the CPC") on 23 January 1995.

Subsequently, as stated earlier, on 6 May 1995, the respondent filed an originating summons in the High Court at Seremban for a declaration that he is the beneficial owner of the said motor vehicle and that the registration effected by the second appellant was binding since they were negligent in not making a proper check of the chassis and engine numbers. He also asked for damages.

In his originating summons, the respondent had sought the following orders:

(a) a declaration th