Wan Suleiman FJ:

When I dismissed the appeal I did not think that this matter called for any written grounds of judgment, but since the allowing of the Public Prosecutor's motion for issue of a certificate under s. 66 of the Court of Judicature Act I now feel that it would only be proper to state why I dismissed this appeal.

The respondent was tried before the Sessions Court, Kuala Lumpur on the following charge:

That you on 25 June 1974 at about 2.50 p.m. at No. 16, Hale Road, in the City of Kuala Lumpur, did have in your possession an offensive weapon, to wit a 'Kerambit' knife otherwise than with lawful authority, and that you have thereby committed an offence punishable under s. 6(1) of the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Ordinance No. 43/58.

It should be noted here that the words "or for a lawful purpose" which appears in s. 6(1) of the Ordinance was omitted, though any charge under that subsection which left out these words would be defective. However, both the notes taken by the learned president and his grounds showed that neither defence Counsel nor the learned president had failed to note the omission, and indeed the defence was that t