Suria Kumar a/l Durairaj Johnson Paul

On the judicial record

A guide to how a High Court judge handles both the evidential questions of criminal trials under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and Penal Code and the procedural and pleading questions of a civil list.

Suria Kumar a/l Durairaj Johnson Paul sits in the High Court, and this collection combines serious criminal trials with a civil and appellate list, authored in English with clearly labelled catchwords. Drug prosecutions under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 are a substantial strand, in which the recurring questions are whether the accused had custody and control of the drugs and whether possession and knowledge were proven. Homicide features through a murder charge under section 302 of the Penal Code in which the court considered a reduction of the charge, in a matter where the two accused were husband and wife. Criminal appeals from the Sessions Court include an appeal against conviction and sentence for causing grievous hurt. The civil half of the docket takes in motor-accident claims for personal injury and loss of dependency, an assessment of damages following a failure to comply with an order for specific performance to construct sewerage piping, and civil appeals from the Sessions Court, including one where the record of appeal was filed in time but served out of time. Practice-and-pleading questions recur, including the rule against pleading evidence, inferences and submissions and the difficulty of identifying the real issues where the rules on pleading are not observed. The judgments set out the charge or claim, work through the evidence, and apply the governing provision. Accused persons and private litigants are referred to by role; corporate and institutional parties are named. A recurring theme is the disciplined identification of the precise issue — whether possession is proven, whether a charge should be reduced, what the pleadings actually put in dispute — before the court turns to resolve it. The collection is a clear guide to how a High Court judge handles both the evidential questions of a criminal trial and the procedural questions of a civil list, and to the way a carefully framed issue determines the outcome in each.