Hayatul Akmal binti Abdul Aziz

On the judicial record

An appellate judge whose reported corpus is rooted in the criminal calendar — narcotics and child-protection appeals and the procedural rules that control how criminal appeals proceed.

Justice Hayatul Akmal binti Abdul Aziz sits mainly in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), with some High Court work, and the reported decisions in this corpus are heavily criminal, led by narcotics appeals. Appeals from convictions under seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952) recur, frequently argued with possession charges under seksyen 12(2) and offences under the Poisons Act 1952 (Akta Racun 1952). The judgments work through the structure of the trial below, including instances where the trial court melepaskan dan membebaskan (discharged and acquitted) the accused of a trafficking charge and amended a second charge, and the prosecution's or the accused's appeal from that outcome.

Sexual-offence appeals also feature, including a charge under seksyen 14(a) Akta Kesalahan-Kesalahan Seksual Terhadap Kanak-Kanak 2017 (section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017), where the court considered an application to adduce fresh evidence on appeal under seksyen 61 Akta Mahkamah Kehakiman 1964 (section 61 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964) and the governing principles for admitting such evidence.

A distinct procedural strand concerns the competence and management of criminal appeals themselves — for example whether the Court of Appeal may strike out a criminal appeal filed by the prosecution against a respondent where the notice of appeal cannot be served and no application to withdraw has been made. Substantial trafficking appeals also turn closely on the facts of the raid and the chain of possession, such as a raid on a vehicle at a port leading to further raids at other locations and the question whether the recovered drugs could be attributed to the appellant. The corpus reflects an appellate judge whose reported work is firmly rooted in the criminal calendar, from narcotics and child-protection offences to the procedural gateways that control the appeals.