Nallini Pathmanathan

On the judicial record

A Federal Court judge whose reported decisions settle apex-level questions of constitutional principle, administrative law and high-value commercial law, from Article 10 speech rights to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.

Justice Nallini Pathmanathan sits in the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), Malaysia's apex court, and the reported decisions in this corpus are accordingly weighted toward constitutional, administrative and high-value commercial questions of general importance. Constitutional adjudication features prominently, including a decision on the freedom of speech and expression under Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution and the permissible restrictions under Article 10(2)(a), and the supremacy of the Constitution under Articles 4(1) and 4(2). Administrative law recurs at the apex level — for instance a challenge to a decision of the Director-General of National Registration concerning the entry of a father's name in a child's birth register, and a judicial review testing the validity of a fatwa issued by a State Islamic religious authority.

Commercial and civil questions of principle also come before the court. The corpus includes the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award registered in the seat court, argued by reference to the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law; a dispute over the effect of a failure to obtain ministerial consent under the Insurance Act 1996 and the effect of that Act's repeal by the Financial Services Act 2013; and a question about when the right to appeal an interlocutory ruling vests, examined under section 68 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. Native customary rights over forest land arise under a Sarawak gazette notification, and employment law appears through the 'single economic unit' or 'functional integrity' test used to determine the continuity of employment across related companies. Procedural questions of general importance also arise, such as the right to appeal against the dismissal of an interlocutory application to strike out pleadings under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court, and the point at which such a right of appeal vests following amendments to section 68 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964. The decisions reflect the work of an apex-court judge resolving contested points of constitutional principle, commercial law and civil procedure for the guidance of the courts below, where the outcome sets the governing rule rather than merely disposing of the parties' dispute.