24 HOURS TO BRING SUSPECT TO COURT
Remand application must be made within 24 hours to protect constitutional rights, rules JB High Court
ASUSPECT must be brought to court for a remand application within 24 hours of arrest, the Johor Baru High Court ruled recently.
Judicial Commissioner Kan Weng Hin said this will ensure that the fundamental right to liberty of a person under Article 5 of the Constitution is protected.
“It is noted that in certain circumstances, it may be administratively difficult to satisfy the mandatory 24-hour requirement, for instance, if it falls within the early hours of the morning or late at night since the court sits only during normal office hours.
“In order for the constitutional right of the detainee to be recognised, it is imperative that the relevant stakeholders work together to provide for such a situation.
“There should not be any delay or postponement of it due to an administrative issue or requirement,” he said in his broad grounds published on the judicial website on Monday.
Kan made the ruling before releasing S. Thineshbalan, who was seeking a revision of the magistrate court’s order to remand him issued the previous day.
Thineshbalan was arrested for investigation under Section 186 of the Penal Code on Feb 4 at 6am following a car chase in Jalan Permas Utara after he refused to stop when ordered to do so by the police during a police operation.
Police filed an application to remand him at 3.42pm from Feb 4 to Feb 7 under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the magistrate’s court.
The detainee was brought to court about 9am on Feb 5 and the remand application was heard and disposed of by the magistrate. The magistrate later granted an extension for the remand to Feb 6.
Thineshbalan’s lawyer, who was present at the hearing, objected to the application on the grounds that it had exceeded the 24 hours provided for under Section 28 and Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The lawyer wrote to the High Court to seek a revision of the magistrate’s decision on Feb 5.
Kan said the magistrate played an important role in ensuring that the detention of a detainee beyond 24 hours after his arrest is not as a result of an executive act.
“The time occupied in the journey from the place of arrest to the magistrate is not to be counted as part of the 24 hours.
“This raises an interesting issue as normally the detainee would be brought to the police station first to be processed after the arrest.
“It is left to the discretion of the magistrate to decide what would be a necessary time for the journey from the place of arrest.
“Hence, the learned magistrate needs to address his or her judicial mind to determine the time necessary for the journey.
“With the advent of software applications like Waze and Google Maps, the magistrate should be able to seek assistance from it to determine what should be the necessary time for the journey.”
The court said there was some flexibility regarding the venue for the remand hearing as prior to 2021 such applications were typically heard either in court or occasionally at the police station.