Lim Chong Fong

On the judicial record

An appellate judge whose reported corpus spans customs and revenue law, commercial fraud, corporate insolvency and drug-trafficking appeals.

Justice Lim Chong Fong sits in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), and the reported decisions in this corpus range across commercial, revenue, criminal and professional-conduct appeals. Revenue and customs law is a notable strand. Decisions concern a licensed manufacturing warehouse under sections 65 and 65A of the Customs Act 1967 and a dispute over deliveries of raw materials between such warehouses, and judicial review by way of certiorari of the imposition of sales tax on an imported chemical product said to be exempt under the Sales Tax (Goods Exempted From Tax) Order 2018.

Commercial and civil appeals feature strongly, including a claim distinguishing common-law fraud, which requires an intention to deceive, from equitable fraud, which turns on unconscionable conduct, and appeals on breach of fiduciary duty and misuse of confidential information by former employees. Corporate insolvency arises through appeals concerning an application for leave to convene a meeting of a scheme of creditors for a company in liquidation and whether the High Court erred in refusing to set that leave aside.

Criminal appeals are well represented, particularly drug-trafficking appeals under seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952), which turn on proof of possession, custody, control and knowledge — for example where a substantial quantity of methamphetamine was found in luggage and the appellant was arrested at an airport, and where drugs were recovered following the accused's own pointing-out (tunjuk ajar). Professional and associational discipline also appears, including an appeal arising from disciplinary proceedings brought by a members' club against a former president over alleged breaches of the club's rules. Across the docket the court's task is to test whether the tribunal or trial court below applied the correct legal standard, and the corpus shows an appellate judge moving comfortably between fiscal, commercial and criminal appeals.