Gopal Sri Ram said custodial deaths and injuries were a serious matter and hopefully the ruling would send a strong message to the detaining authorities.
“This judgment does not put the brakes on legitimate interrogation. One must not forget that enforcement agencies, especially the police, are in the business of preventing and solving crimes,” he said.
Sri Ram said the authorities must be given latitude during the interrogation process but that there should be no deaths in custody.
Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, was responding to the court’s 6-1 majority decision awarding aggravated damages amounting to RM200,000 to the widow of former lorry driver P Chandran and their daughter.
The amount had earlier been awarded as exemplary damages but the government had appealed against the judgment. A separate award of RM127,000 in other claims was not disturbed and the government has to pay a total of RM327,0000 inclusive of 5% interest.
Exemplary damages are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and deter the defendant from repeating the offence. Aggravated damages refer to special and highly exceptional compensation awarded to a plaintiff when a defendant’s conduct leads to humiliating and malicious circumstances for the plaintiff.
Judge Rhodzariah Bujang, who delivered the majority judgment, said the court did not award exemplary damages, which would produce a result opposite to legislative intention, as that would constitute an unauthorised judicial legislation and a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers.
Sri Ram said “constitutional compensation is the right of every citizen when fundamental rights are violated”.
Judge Nallini Pathmanathan, who dissented, said custodial deaths were “one of the most reprehensible of wrongs in a civilised society governed by the rule of law”, and Malaysia was no exception.
Nallini said the damages of RM200,000 awarded by the High Court were clearly punitive in nature to indicate the court’s outrage at the conduct of the authorities, resulting in the unnecessary death of the detainee.
In January 2017, then High Court Judge S Nantha Balan had held the police liable for causing Chandran’s death at the Dang Wangi police lock-up in 2012 after his medical needs were not attended to.
The Court of Appeal affirmed that police were liable for the death and the damages as pleaded.
The government appealed for the RM200,000 not to be awarded as the Civil Law Act did not allow exemplary damages to be given to a deceased’s family.