Abdoolcader J (delivering oral judgment):

My attention was drawn by a report in the New Straits Times of 6 June 1975, to the proceedings in the Sessions Court at Ipoh on the preceding day when the learned president struck off the case against Probationary Inspector Syed Abdul Bahari Shahabuddin bin Syed Abdullah who was charged with an offence under s. 4(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961. I accordingly called for the record of the proceedings in Ipoh Sessions Court Arrest Case No. 158/ 75 to examine and consider the correctness, legality and propriety of the order made by the learned president.

The learned president apparently proceeded on the basis that he had no jurisdiction as the accused had been granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on the same charge by a former learned president of the Sessions Court at Ipoh, and accordingly struck off the case in exercise of what he termed his inherent powers.

The accused had been charged on the same charge previously in the Sessions Court at Ipoh in Ipoh Sessions Court Arrest Case No. 35/73 and after six witnesses had given evidence the prosecution informed the Court on 22 March 1975, that it had five more