Last week's ruling in the Balwant Singh case might produce an eerie feeling of deja vu among those who remember the British TV comedy Monty Python's 'Flying Circus'.

The sketch which comes to mind is that in which John Cleese is taking a self-defence class (I paraphrase. Click here for the original).

"I want you to come at me with a banana," he tells one hapless member (Graham Chapman) of the class.

"Can't I use something else, like a sharp stick," replies Chapman.

"No," say Cleese. "This week we're doing soft fruit."

"No not like that," says Cleese when Chapman rushes at him half-heartedly. "Put some feeling into it."

Chapman holds the banana in a threatening manner, lets out a scream and runs at Cleese who pulls out a revolver and shoots him dead.

"Right," says Cleese, "now we can move on to raspberries."

Monty Python was sublime and surreal comedy, some of the best ever written in my humble opinion.

But I never expected it to form the basis of a judgment by that colossus of the Malaysian judiciary, Augustine S Paul. He gets so surreal no one would believe him if you made him up.