JUDGMENT

Lord Devlin (delivering the judgment of the Board):

This is an appeal in an action for false imprisonment. The three defendants in the action, who are the appellants before the Board, are two police officers and the Government of Malaysia. Nothing turns on the separate responsibility of any of the defendants and the action can be described as one brought against the police. The two plaintiffs in the action were arrested on 11 July 1965 for an offence, said to have been committed on the previous day against either s. 304A of the Penal Code or s. 34A of the Road Traffic Ordinance, 1958. The former of these sections corresponds to the offence of manslaughter and the latter makes it an offence to cause death by dangerous or reckless driving. The plaintiffs were held in custody overnight and brought before the Magistrate on 12 July when he made an order for their detention for seven days under s. 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 6) for further investigation. On the next day the plaintiffs were released, the police having found that there was not sufficient evidence to proceed against either of them. It was agreed that the false imprisonment, if any, was brought to an en