Mohd. Faisal bin Md. Noor

On the court record

Mohd. Faisal bin Md. Noor appears in the corpus in constitutional, public-service and public-law litigation in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi). One matter, appearing for the defendant, concerned the acquisition of citizenship by operation of law under Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution read with the Second Schedule, in the unusual and poignant circumstances of a foundling: a baby had been delivered at a hospital and taken home by the plaintiffs, whose birth certificate recorded them as the parents although the identity of the biological mother was unknown, and the questions were whether the constitutional presumption applicable to a newborn child found exposed could be invoked and whether an expansive meaning should be given to the fact of abandonment. A second matter, appearing for the respondent, concerned the pension entitlement of a senior police officer who had been charged with criminal offences and then interdicted and suspended, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment one day after he was due to go on compulsory retirement, and whose disciplinary proceedings had not been completed pending the criminal case; the questions engaged sections 3, 9, 10 and 21 of the Pensions Act, whether the officer's pension benefits ceased upon conviction, whether an issue of condonation arose, and whether mandamus could issue. A third matter, appearing for the respondent, was a judicial review in which house buyers sought an extension of time to challenge decisions of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government approving three extensions of time for the delivery of vacant possession, some granted under the exclusions in the temporary COVID-19 measures legislation, raising whether the delay was inordinate, whether any explanation had been given, and whether the review would be an exercise in futility. Across the appearances the practice combines the constitutional law of citizenship with public-service pension disputes and judicial review of administrative decisions.