At the conclusion of the hearing of two Magistrates Appeals last Friday, which were heard together as they were both concerned with the ambit of section 183 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 113), I allowed both appeals, varied the orders of two learned District Judges and directed that the discharges in both the appeals amounted to acquittals. In addition to discharging my duty to do so, I am setting out my grounds in deference to since I found myself at variance with the written grounds of decisions of both the learned District Judges who have had much experience in the administration of criminal justice in the Subordinate Courts.

The two appeals arose in this way. In Magistrates Appeal No. 78 of 1984, Arnold Ah Chak, a detective sergeant of the Singapore Police Force, faced two charges that he on two different days in June, 1983 did corruptly obtain for himself from two prostitutes gratifications in the form of sexual intercourse as inducements to return them their passports and not putting them on the blacklist for immigration purposes. He was alleged to have committed offences under section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap. 104). When