Shaharuddin bin Mohamed

On the court record

Engages military justice and remand under the Armed Forces Act 1972 and the judicial review of public-service disciplinary decisions, including the mandatory nature of procedural safeguards.

Shaharuddin bin Mohamed appears in this corpus as counsel for the appellant in a Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan) matter concerning the remand of a person under military law, and as counsel for an applicant in a High Court judicial review of disciplinary proceedings in the public service.

The Federal Court appeal raised a question of statutory construction under the Armed Forces Act 1972. The issue was whether an accused person who has been investigated under the Act, where the charge is not dealt with summarily, may be remanded automatically under section 96(3) of the Act, without the court having to consider the remand procedures prescribed under section 94 of the Act and the associated rules of the Armed Forces (Court-Martial) Rules of Procedure 1976 — rules 4, 15(1), 15(2), 16(1) and 38(1) — governing remand pending trial. That question goes to the liberty of a service member and to the interaction between the summary and court-martial tracks within the military justice system, and whether the safeguards attaching to one track can be bypassed by resort to another.

In the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) he acted as counsel for the applicant in a "semakan kehakiman" (judicial review) challenging disciplinary action. The questions concerned whether the provisions of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993 and the Public Service Disciplinary Board Regulations 1993 were mandatory, and whether the respondent bore the responsibility of ensuring that a notice sent by registered post (pos berdaftar AR) had actually been received personally by the applicant. Service of disciplinary notices, and whether strict compliance with the procedural regulations is a precondition to valid disciplinary action, are recurring themes in public-service judicial review. Across these matters, Shaharuddin bin Mohamed's practice engages military justice and remand under the Armed Forces Act 1972 and the judicial review of public-service disciplinary decisions.