Prasad Sandosham Abraham

On the judicial record

A record of apex-level reasoning on the abuse of process, the proper constitution of the Federal Court under the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, legal professional privilege, and disciplinary proceedings against solicitors.

Prasad Sandosham Abraham sits in the Federal Court, the apex court of Malaysia, and this collection gathers final appellate decisions across civil procedure, company and professional law. A recurring and important theme is the abuse of the court's process: what constitutes an abuse, the approach the courts take to it, and whether an issue already litigated may be re-agitated, together with applications to review the dismissal of leave to appeal by a leave panel. The integrity of the court itself is engaged in an appeal on coram or quorum failure — the composition of the Bench of the Federal Court under section 74 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 and the requirement of Borneo judicial experience — a question going to the validity of the court's own constitution. Company law features through a claim for accounts and damages for fraud, forgery and trespass, and insolvency and bankruptcy through appeals requiring the sanction of the Director General of Insolvency to prosecute an appeal touching an Industrial Court award. The legal profession is addressed through disciplinary proceedings before the Disciplinary Board, including a matter concerning a firm that acted for indigenous beneficiaries, and legal professional privilege through whether solicitor-and-client communications were protected and whether there was a breach of the responsibility that privilege entails. Because the Federal Court sits in panels and its rulings bind the courts below, these decisions settle points of general importance rather than merely resolving the dispute at hand. Private individuals are referred to by role; corporate, governmental and statutory parties are named. A recurring concern is the integrity of the judicial process — its proper constitution, its protection against abuse, and the confidentiality on which the lawyer-client relationship rests. The collection is a valuable record of apex-level reasoning on procedure, professional responsibility and the court's own institutional rules.