Gurbachan Singh a/l Bagawan Singh

On the court record

Gurbachan Singh a/l Bagawan Singh appears in the corpus as an appellate advocate in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), across both criminal and civil matters. One criminal appeal, appearing for the appellant, was a 'Rayuan Jenayah' (criminal appeal) against a High Court judge's refusal of an application to transfer a case from the Sessions Court to the High Court; the respondent raised a preliminary objection that the High Court's decision was not a final decision determining the appellant's rights and so was not appealable, and the Court of Appeal agreed that the decision was not final and that the appeal was 'tidak kompeten' (incompetent), an outcome that also disposed of the appellant's separate notice of motion seeking leave to commit a Deputy Public Prosecutor. A second criminal appeal, again appearing for the appellant, arose from a murder charge under 'seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan' (section 302 of the Penal Code); the trial court had found a prima facie case, rejected the defence and convicted, imposing the sentence of 'gantung sampai mati' (death by hanging), but on appeal the death sentence was set aside and substituted with a term of 30 years' imprisonment from the date of arrest together with 12 strokes of the rotan, the court having weighed direct and circumstantial evidence, DNA comparison and the post-mortem findings. A third matter, appearing for the appellant, was a civil appeal concerning a settlement agreement and a supplementary agreement said to be tainted by fraud, coercion and undue influence, which turned substantially on compliance with the filing rules under the Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994 and the failure to file a memorandum of appeal. Taken together the three appeals show a practice that is as attentive to whether an appeal is competently before the court at all — whether a decision is final, whether the rules have been complied with — as it is to the substance of a murder conviction or a contested settlement. The profile is that of seasoned appellate counsel across serious crime and commercial disputes.