Rajpal, Firah & Vishnu

On the court record

Rajpal, Firah & Vishnu is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters before the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan) combine serious criminal defence with company litigation. Criminal work predominates. Acting for accused persons and appellants in prosecutions brought by the Public Prosecutor (Pendakwa Raya), the firm has defended dangerous-drugs trafficking under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, including a matter in which a trafficking charge was reduced to one of possession, and a methamphetamine prosecution turning on custody and control of a bag and the presumptions of possession and knowledge under section 37(d), and whether trafficking was made out within the definition in section 2. In a full-trial cocaine prosecution the second accused was acquitted and discharged at the close of the defence case, while in a homicide matter the court convicted and imposed sentence, including death by hanging on the first charge.

At the apex level the firm has appeared in a rape appeal under section 376(1) of the Penal Code that raised a constitutional challenge to the procedures under section 265A(2) and (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, contending that those provisions were unconstitutional and had denied the appellant the right to be heard, a question of general importance to criminal procedure.

On the corporate side the firm has litigated a shareholder's right of inspection under section 245 of the Companies Act 2016, analysing whether the right to inspect the company's accounting records is absolute or may be restricted by claims of potential misuse of the information, and the director's statutory duty to maintain proper records. The reported profile is that of a litigation practice anchored in criminal defence, engaged with the proof of possession and knowledge in drug cases and the constitutional limits on criminal procedure, complemented by company work on shareholders' and directors' statutory rights and duties.