Pritam Singh v Public Prosecutor: Transfer of Case Application under Criminal Procedure Code

Pritam Singh, a Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition, applied to the General Division of the High Court to transfer his case from the State Courts, where he faces charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act for allegedly providing false answers to the Committee of Privileges. The application, based on Section 239(1)(c) of the Criminal Procedure Code, argued that the transfer was 'expedient for the ends of justice'. The Public Prosecutor objected. Hoo Sheau Peng J dismissed the application, finding that the transfer was not justified and that the case should remain in the State Courts.

1. Case Overview

1.1 Court

General Division of the High Court of the Republic of Singapore

1.2 Outcome

Application dismissed

1.3 Case Type

Criminal

1.4 Judgment Type

Judgment

1.5 Jurisdiction

Singapore

1.6 Description

Application to transfer a case from State Courts to High Court dismissed. The court held that the transfer was not expedient for the ends of justice.

1.7 Decision Date

8 September 2024

2. Parties and Outcomes

Party Name	Role	Type	Outcome	Outcome Type	Counsels
Public Prosecutor	Respondent	Government Agency	Application Dismissed	Won	Lu Huiyi of Attorney-General’s Chambers Ang Cheng Hock of Attorney-General’s Chambers Norine Tan of Attorney-General’s Chambers Tan Ben Mathias of Attorney-General’s Chambers
Pritam Singh	Applicant	Individual	Application Dismissed	Lost	Andre Darius Jumabhoy of Andre Jumabhoy LLC Eng Zheng Yang Aristotle Emmanuel of Andre Jumabhoy LLC

3. Judges

Judge Name	Title	Delivered Judgment
Hoo Sheau Peng	Judge of the High Court	Yes

4. Counsels

Counsel Name	Organization
Lu Huiyi	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Ang Cheng Hock	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Norine Tan	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Tan Ben Mathias	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Andre Darius Jumabhoy	Andre Jumabhoy LLC
Eng Zheng Yang Aristotle Emmanuel	Andre Jumabhoy LLC

4. Facts

Pritam Singh faces charges under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act for allegedly providing false answers to the Committee of Privileges.
Singh applied to transfer his case from the State Courts to the High Court, arguing it was 'expedient for the ends of justice'.
The Public Prosecutor objected to the application.
Singh compared his case to that of Mr. Iswaran, whose case was transferred to the High Court.
The Prosecution argued that the transfer of Mr. Iswaran’s case was under a different provision and factually distinguishable.
The court found that Singh failed to establish that a transfer was 'expedient for the ends of justice'.

5. Formal Citations

Pritam Singh v Public Prosecutor, Criminal Motion No 41 of 2024, [2024] SGHC 233

6. Timeline

Date	Event
2011-01-01	Pritam Singh became a Member of Parliament for the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency.
2018-01-01	Pritam Singh became the Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party.
2020-01-01	Pritam Singh became the Leader of the Opposition.
2021-08-03	Ms Raeesah Begum bte Farid Khan made a speech during a parliamentary debate.
2021-11-01	Ms Raeesah admitted in Parliament that her anecdote was untrue.
2021-12-10	Pritam Singh gave evidence before the Committee of Privileges.
2021-12-15	Pritam Singh gave evidence before the Committee of Privileges.
2021-12-20	Pritam Singh gave evidence before the Committee of Privileges.
2022-02-10	The Committee of Privileges issued its report.
2022-02-15	Parliament referred the matter to the Public Prosecutor.
2024-03-19	Pritam Singh was charged in the State Courts with two counts of wilfully giving false answers before the Committee of Privileges.
2024-05-31	The case was fixed for trial in the State Courts over 16 days in October and November 2024.
2024-06-03	Counsel for Pritam Singh requested that the Prosecution transfer the case to the High Court.
2024-06-14	The Prosecution responded that it was unable to agree to Pritam Singh’s request.
2024-07-23	Pritam Singh filed this application.
2024-08-26	Hearing was held.
2024-09-09	Judgment reserved.

7. Legal Issues

Transfer of Criminal Case
- Outcome: The court held that the transfer of the case from the State Courts to the High Court was not expedient for the ends of justice.
- Category: Procedural
- Sub-Issues:
  - Expediency for the ends of justice
  - Public interest considerations
  - Judicial independence

8. Remedies Sought

Transfer of case to the High Court

9. Cause of Actions

No cause of actions

10. Practice Areas

Criminal Law

11. Industries

No industries specified

12. Cited Cases

Case Name	Court	Affirmed	Citation	Jurisdiction	Significance
Measor and another v Public Prosecutor	High Court	Yes	[1971–1973] SLR(R) 316	Singapore	Cited for the interpretation of 'expedient for the ends of justice' in the context of transferring cases.
Attorney-General v Koh Cho Puan and others	High Court	Yes	[1965–1967] SLR(R) 334	Singapore	Cited to illustrate that the power to order a transfer has very rarely been exercised.
Syed Abbas bin Mohamed Alsagoff and another v Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura)	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2010] 2 SLR 136	Singapore	Cited for the definition of 'expedient'.
Noor Azlin bte Abdul Rahman and another v Changi General Hospital Pte Ltd	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2021] 2 SLR 440	Singapore	Cited to emphasize that insinuations which cast doubt on the integrity and independence of the judiciary should not be lightly made.
Wong Hong Toy and another v Public Prosecutor	Court of Criminal Appeal	Yes	[1985–1986] SLR(R) 656	Singapore	Cited for the principle that all accused persons, including political personalities, must be treated equally, regardless of their status.
Seow Francis v Comptroller of Income Tax	High Court	Yes	[1990] 1 SLR(R) 580	Singapore	Cited to support the principle that the mere fact that an applicant is a political personality does not warrant a transfer.
Lin Tah Hwa v Public Prosecutor	High Court	Yes	[1985–1986] SLR(R) 969	Singapore	Cited to support the principle that the novelty of a point of law does not suffice to show that it should not be handled in the State Courts.
Ang Cheng Hai & Ors v Public Prosecutor	High Court	Yes	[1995] SGHC 97	Singapore	Cited to support the principle that an applicant cannot earn an automatic right of appeal to the Court of Appeal through a transfer of his case to the High Court.
Goh Kah Heng (alias Shi Ming Yi) v Public Prosecutor and another criminal motion	High Court	Yes	[2009] 3 SLR(R) 409	Singapore	Cited to support the principle that s 239(1) of the CPC would be engaged where there is a reasonable apprehension that a fair trial would not be possible because of the bias or prejudice of judicial officers.
Riza Shahriz bin Abdul Aziz & Anor v Pendakwa Raya	High Court of Malaya	Yes	[2019] MLJU 1824	Malaysia	Cited to support the principle that criminal cases must commence where they are registered under the law in adherence to the remit of the criminal jurisdiction of the Sessions Court.
Usmangani Adambhai Vahora v State of Gujarat and Another	Indian Supreme Court	Yes	[2016] 1 MLJ (CRL) 379	India	Cited to support the principle that the power to order a transfer should be exercised cautiously and in exceptional situations.
T T Rajah v Regina	Not Available	Yes	[1963] 1 MLJ 281	Not Available	Cited as a case where the Prosecution did not object to the transfers.
Fung Yin Ching & Ors v Public Prosecutor	Not Available	Yes	[1965] 1 MLJ 49	Not Available	Cited as a case where the Prosecution did not object to the transfers.

13. Applicable Rules

Rule Name
No applicable rules

14. Applicable Statutes

Statute Name	Jurisdiction
Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act (Cap 217, 2000 Rev Ed)	Singapore
s 31(q) read with s 36(1)(b) of the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act	Singapore
Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (2020 Rev Ed)	Singapore
s 239(1)(c) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (2020 Rev Ed)	Singapore
s 165 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed)	Singapore

15. Key Terms and Keywords

15.1 Key Terms

Transfer of case
Expedient for the ends of justice
Public interest
Judicial independence
Committee of Privileges
Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act
Criminal Procedure Code

15.2 Keywords

Criminal Law
Singapore
High Court
Transfer Application
Pritam Singh
Public Prosecutor
Criminal Procedure Code
Parliament
Privileges
Immunities
Powers

17. Areas of Law

Area Name	Relevance Score
Transfer of Cases	90
Criminal Procedure	60

16. Subjects

Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure