Suffian LP (delivering the judgment of the Court):

These applications (the first nine by the Public Prosecutor and the last by the accused) were argued successively on Wednesday, 2 May 1979 and on the following day we confirmed the convictions and sentences of each of the accused, except as to application No. 11 in which we made no order and application No. 12 which we dismissed.

Our reasons were as follows.

The accused in all these cases were tried in accordance with the special procedure prescribed by the Essential (Security Cases) Regulations, 1975. and were convicted and sentenced. They appealed to the Federal Court and their appeals were dismissed.

Subsequently it was held by the Privy Council in another case Teh Cheng Poh v. Public Prosecutor that the regulations were ultra vires the constitution and that therefore the trial of the accused in that case was a nullity.

As many similar trials had been held, Parliament at the instance of Government subsequently passed the Emergency (Essential Powers) Act, 1979 (Act 216) - "the Act" - and when Teh Cheng Poh came back from the Privy Council before us to consider whether or not we should order a new trial we held on 27