Moses Susayan

On the judicial record

A High Court judge whose reported corpus spans administrative law, land and land-acquisition disputes, and criminal appeals including sexual-offence and drug matters.

Justice Moses Susayan sits in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), and the reported decisions in this corpus combine civil, administrative and criminal work, with a substantial appellate component from the subordinate courts. Administrative law features through a judicial review of the dismissal of a public officer — a teacher accused of prolonged absenteeism where no disciplinary action had been taken for several years, during which the officer had been transferred, promoted and given an award, before a sudden show-cause letter issued. Occupational-safety negligence also appears, including an employer's failure to conduct a risk assessment on the disclosure of an employee's pregnancy under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.

Land law is a distinct strand, including the conversion of land tenure from perpetual to leasehold by the land registrar and whether an originating summons seeking to restore the original freehold status was the proper mode of proceeding, and a land-acquisition reference under section 40 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 heard with government and private assessors on market value, injurious affection and severance across neighbouring lots.

Criminal work is well represented, largely on appeal. Sexual-offence appeals arise under section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and section 354 of the Penal Code, examining whether a defence was wrongly rejected as an afterthought and whether it had been put in cross-examination, and a drug-trafficking prosecution under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 read with section 34 of the Penal Code turns on whether custody, control and knowledge were established where the accused were found inside an enclosed lorry. Medical-negligence damages following an admission of liability, where a child suffered prolonged complications, and civil-procedure appeals on the jurisdiction of the High Court to entertain an appeal from the Sessions Court round out a broad docket. The corpus reflects a High Court judge working across the civil, administrative and criminal divide, with the safety of a conviction and the adequacy of the reasons given below recurring as the touchstones on the appellate side.