JUDGMENT

Lee Swee Seng JCA:

[1] This appeal raised the important question as to whether a party may terminate a contract on ground that the alleged defaulting party had failed to comply with some provisions in the contract that resulted in an illegal act being committed when the party seeking to terminate had participated in the illegality as this court shall find.

[2] The illegality in question is that whilst no Certificate of Completion and Compliance ("CCC") had been obtained yet, and this the plaintiffs said was not told to them, the 1st defendant ("D1") had allowed students of the 2nd plaintiff ("P2") to occupy the hostels and student centre built by it and collected rental from P2 as a concessionaire under a Concession Agreement (" CA ") between the plaintiffs and D1.

[3] However the undisputed fact is that, assuming the plaintiffs were unaware of the lack of a CCC when the hostels were completed, the plaintiffs continued to allow students of P2 to occupy the hostels even after being informed by the local authority that the CCC had not been obtained for the hostels.

[4] The plaintiffs sought to terminate the CA on the ground of the failure of D1 to obtain the CCC and also on the