Abdoolcader J (delivering oral judgment):

1. Preliminary

[1] These two cases involving charges against the three accused for forgery and criminal breach of trust were transferred to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur from the Sessions Court in the Federal Territory on certificates issued by the Public Prosecutor under the provisions of s 418A of the Criminal Procedure Code ("the Code") enacted and added to the Code by the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment and Extension) Act, 1976 and operative on 10 January 1976.

[2] Counsel for the 2nd accused, with whom counsel for the other two accused associate themselves, has at the outset of this joint trial raised the contention that s 418A of the Code violates art 8(1) of the Federal Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional and void by virtue of the provisions of art 4(1) which provides that the Constitution is the supreme law of the Federation and any law passed after Merdeka Day which is inconsistent with the Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.

[3] The question raised before me therefore resolves into the determination of the constitutional validity of s 418A of the Code in relation to the provisions of