Mohamed Apandi Ali FCJ:

Leave Question

[1] This court had, on 6 January 2014, granted leave to the appellant to appeal on a single question of law, which reads:

"Whether compensation in lieu of reinstatement can be awarded to a person who cannot be reinstated and/or whether the issue of reinstatement even arises as he had already attained the age of retirement at the time of the filing of his claim (under s 20 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 )."

Background Facts

[2] The salient facts of this case which are not disputed are as follows. So Lai ("the 1^st respondent") had been in the employment of the appellant company for 17 years when he was dismissed on 14 March 2001. He was then a Redistribution Stockist Operation Supervisor and his dismissal was consequential to a domestic enquiry conducted by the appellant company, based on allegations of receiving unauthorised payments from a complainant, one Tey Hup Heng Trading Sdn Bhd. At