JUDGMENT

Wee Chong Jin JC:

On 30 March 1979 Parliament passed the Legal Profession (Amendment) Act 1979. It was assented to by the President on 26 April 1979 but did not come into operation until 15 October 1979. Inter alia,the amending Act amended s. 30(1) of the Legal Profession Act by the addition of paras. (d), (e) and (f). These additions prohibited a solicitor from applying for a practising certificate:

(d) if he is an undischarged bankrupt or a receiving order in bankruptcy is an force against him; or

(e) if he has entered into a composition with his creditors or a deed of arrangement for the benefit of his creditors; or

(f) if he has one or more outstanding judgments against him amounting in the aggregate to one hundred thousand dollars or more which he has been unable to satisfy within six months from the date of the earliest judgment.

The amending Act also repealed s. 52and enacted a new s. 52 which provided for compulsory voting in the election of the members of the Council of the Law Society.

After these amendments had come into effect the Registrar of the Supreme Court, before the close of the practice year ending 31 March 1980, wrote to the President of the Law Societ