Salleh Abas FJ:

The Facts

The facts in this appeal are as follows.

The respondent was a trained school teacher. He became a teacher on 2 January 1969 by joining what was then known as the Unified Teaching Service and was subsequently posted to Secondary School Tengku Idris Shah, Kapar Selangor. In 1971 he sat for the Higher School Examinations and passed. His results were not spectacular but good enough to enable him to further his studies in a local university. In the following academic session, i.e. 1972/1973 session, which began in June 1972, he enrolled as a student of University Science Penang to follow a course in social science, leading to a degree of Bachelor of Social Science. To enable him to pursue his academic studies, the Government gave him study leave from 1 June 1972 to the end of the course. For the first six months, i.e. from 1 June 1972 to 18 December 1972 he was on half-month pay leave and thereafter the leave was without pay. He also signed the usual agreement with the Government binding him to serve the Government for seven years after the completion of his academic studies.

He passed his first year examinations in 1973, although he was referred in a