Hashim Yeop A Sani J:

The accused, a Member of Parliament, appeared before me last year, his case having been transferred from the Sessions Court, Lumut, to the High Court, Ipoh, under s. 418A of the Criminal Procedure Code. The accused was then charged on twelve counts under s. 4(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1961 for allegedly using false certificates pertaining to certain development projects in Lumut District, Perak. It was then agreed to proceed only with three of the charges first, the total amount of money involved in the three charges being $2,000.

In that proceeding Counsel for the accused raised a preliminary objection on the validity of s. 418A of the Criminal Procedure Code. I made my ruling in Public Prosecutor v. Su Liang Yu and this ruling was upheld in another case by the Federal Court [1977] 2 MLJ 155.

On 17 April 1978 the case was again brought before me to proceed with the same charges. At the commencement of the proceeding the learned Deputy Public Prosecutor tendered the amended charges which differed only in format but not in substance from the original charges. Before the charges were read to the accused I asked the learned Deputy Public