KUALA LUMPUR: A suspect must be brought to court for a remand application within 24 hours of their arrest, the High Court in Johor Baru ruled recently.
Judicial Commissioner Kan Weng Hin said this is to ensure that the fundamental right to liberty of a person under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution is upheld and protected.
"It is noted that in certain circumstances, it may be administratively difficult to satisfy the mandatory 24-hour requirement, for instance, if it falls within the early hours of the morning or late at night since the court sits only during normal office hours.
"In order for the constitutional right of the detainee to be recognised, it is imperative that the relevant stakeholders work together to provide for such a situation.
"There should not be any delay or postponement of it due to an administrative issue or requirement," he said in his broad grounds published on judicial website on Monday.
Kan made the ruling before releasing S. Thineshbalan who was seeking a revision of magistrate court's order to remand him issued the previous day.
Thineshbalan was arrested for investigation under Section 186 of the Penal Code on Feb 4 at 6am following a car chase along Jalan Permas Utara after he refused to stop when ordered by the police during a routine police operation.
Police filed an application to remand the detainee at 3.42pm on the same day (Feb 4) until Feb 7 under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) at the magistrate court.
The detainee was brought to court at around 9am on Feb 5 and the remand application was heard and disposed of during the course of the day by the magistrate.
Consequently, the magistrate granted an extension to the remand of the detainee to Feb 6.
The detainee's lawyer who was present at the hearing objected to the application on the grounds that it had exceeded the 24 hours as provided under Section 28 and Section 117 of the CPC.
Not happy with the decision, Thineshbalan's lawyer wrote to the High Court to seek a revision of magistrate's decision on Feb 5.
Kan said the magistrate plays an important role to ensure that the detention of the detainee beyond 24 hours after his arrest is not as a result of an executive act.
"The time occupied in the journey from the place of arrest to the magistrate is not to be counted as part of the 24 hours.
"This raises an interesting issue as normally the detainee would be brought to the police station first to be processed after the arrest.
"It is left to the discretion of the magistrate to decide what would be a necessary time for the journey from the place of arrest.
"Hence, the learned magistrate needs to address his or her judicial mind to determine the time necessary for the journey.
"With the advent of software applications like Waze and Google maps, the magistrate should be able to seek assistance from it to determine what should be the necessary time for the journey," he said.
The court said there was some flexibility regarding the venue for the remand hearing, as prior to 2021, such applications were typically heard either in court or occasionally at the police station.
