Thomson CJ:

[1] This is an appeal against a judgment of one of the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates and I am compelled to say straightaway that I have seldom come across anything more perverse or lacking in rudimentary commonsense.

[2] The respondent was charged with driving a motor van in Princes Road, Kuala Lumpur, at a speed exceeding 20 miles per hour. He claimed trial and at the close of the prosecution case the Magistrate held there was no case to answer and made an order of acquittal and discharge. The Public Prosecutor appealed against that decision and some time later the Magistrate put on record grounds of judgment which would appear to have very little in common with whatever he had in mind when he discharged the respondent.

[3] The evidence for the prosecution was that of a Police corporal who said that he was on duty on a motorcycle in Princes Road when he saw the respondent driving a motor van. He followed the van for about half a mile and his speedometer showed between 35 to 38 miles per hour. He then overtook the van and stopped it. He said "Princes Road is a 20 mph area". This witness was not cross-examined by the defendant nor was he asked any question by the Magistr