Ashok Kandiah

On the court record

A broad general civil-litigation practice spanning judicial review, employment, land, defamation and contract.

Ashok Kandiah practises in civil litigation, appearing mainly in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) with some Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) work, and the reported decisions record appearances across a wide range of capacities — plaintiff, defendant, respondent, appellant and third party. The caseload is broad. Judicial review recurs, and there is industrial-relations work including unfair-dismissal claims, alongside land disputes — including the compulsory acquisition of part of a developed area — defamation and contract.

A distinctive strand concerns the classification and regulation of property developments, including a dispute over whether a development, such as a commercial complex, falls within a particular statutory or contractual category. Appearing on many sides of the record, the practice is instructed in a variety of civil disputes, from workplace and property matters to reputation and commercial claims, in matters that turn on the governing statute and the terms of the relevant instruments.

The work turns on statutory interpretation and on the principles of tort, property and administrative law. In the dismissal matters the argument concerns whether the termination was justified; in the compulsory-acquisition matters the entitlement to and assessment of compensation; in the defamation matters the balance between reputation and free expression; and in the judicial-review matters whether the decision under challenge was lawful. Several matters reach the Court of Appeal on questions of law arising from a High Court decision.

The overall profile is a broad general civil-litigation practice conducted mainly at first instance and on appeal, spanning judicial review, employment, land, defamation and contract. The matters turn on the interpretation of statute, the principles of tort and property law, and the review of administrative and workplace decisions, rather than on any criminal dimension, marking a wide-ranging private-and-public-law disputes practice. The many capacities in which counsel appears reflect a general litigation practice instructed across the full spread of civil work rather than tied to a single field or class of client.