GOVERNMENT PROCEEDINGS (AMENDMENT) BILL

4.09 p.m.

Order for Second Reading read.

Mr Barker: Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

By virtue of the Malaysian Modification of Laws (Government Proceedings and Public Authorities Protection) (Extension and Modification) Order, 1965, which came into operation on 25th February, 1965, the Crown Suits Ordinance (Chapter 12) of Singapore ceased to have effect and the Malaysian Government Proceedings Ordinance, 1956, was extended to Singapore, with certain modifications. The latter Ordinance is, therefore, the law in Singapore in so far as it relates to proceedings by or against the Government, and it is this Ordinance which the Bill seeks to amend.

A good part of the Bill makes merely formal amendments which are necessary in consequence of Singapore ceasing to be part of Malaysia. A number of other amendments to the Ordinance are also made. By a new subsection to section 14, which deals with proceedings against or on behalf of members of the armed forces, the Bill provides that no act or omission of a public officer shall subject him to liability in tort for death or personal injury, in so far as the death or personal injury is due to anything suffered by a member of such armed forces being a thing as to which certain specified conditions are satisfied.

The Bill requires the Minister to publish in the Gazette from time to time a list of Government departments which may sue or be sued in their own names. The Attorney-General may also represent the Government, and no change in the person holding the office of Attorney-General or in the person or body of persons constituting the department is to affect any proceedings instituted by or against the Attorney-General or a Government department. Provision is also made for the service of documents required to be served on the Government.

Another clause relates to the appearance of legal officers in civil proceedings by or against the Government or in any such proceedings to which a public officer is a party; it is also provided that an advocate and solicitor of the High Court, retained by the Attorney-General in the case of civil proceedings by or against the Government or a public officer, may appear as advocate on behalf of the Government or the public officer in such proceedings. The provision for representation by public officers, other than legal officers, is being repealed.

The High Court is empowered to order the transfer to itself of any civil proceedings in a District Court to which the Government is a party, where an application is made by the Government to the High Court that the proceedings may involve an important question of law or may be decisive of other cases arising in the same matter, or that it is otherwise desirable in the public interest or for any other reason that such proceedings should be so transferred from the District Court to the High Court, and there is also produced to the High Court a certificate of the Attorney-General to that effect.

The Bill further seeks to repeal the special provisions as to limitation of actions against the Government arising from the Public Authorities Protection Ordinance.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Barker].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.