Peh Swee Chin FCJ:

Many material facts and much history leading to this appeal before us have been marshalled with clarity in the judgment of the Court below, (see [1992] 3 CLJ 1497 ). We will only refer to such facts very briefly and only when necessary in order to avoid wholesale repetition. This written judgment is predicated by having to set a very short but very important principle at rest; the principle being whether any subsidiary legislation can be made with retrospective effect notwithstanding the absence of power expressly given by the parent Act. In this connection, s. 20 of the Interpretation Act (Act 388) has been argued with vigour as dispensing with the need for such express power. We will consider this section later.

The respondents are the plaintiffs and the appellant, the defendant. Both plaintiffs were employees of the Cooperative Central Bank Ltd. (hereafter referred to as 'the CCB') at all material times. The 1st plaintiff obtained an award for RM424,428.81 in the Industrial Court, being Award No. 32/89 in connection with his wrongful dismissal by CCB and similarly, the 2nd plaintiff obtained a judgment for RM425,412.50 also against CCB from Kuala Lump