The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya has postponed in delivering its decision today on the government’s appeal over the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision in the death in custody case of A Kugan.

Justice Mohd Ariff Mohd Yusof ordered parties to provide more written submissions on malfeasance in public office, as this was a new area which is still developing in other jurisdictions.

Lawyers appearing for the government, the then-Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, Subang Jaya OCPD and constable V Navindran had argued that the court should not allow a claim for malfeasance in public office.

“This follows the family members had made a claim under Section 7 and 8 of the Civil Law Act 1958, which does not entitle the estate to be given an award for malfeasance,” said senior federal counsel Azizan Md Arshad.

Lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar, representing Navindran, also submitted that his client was not liable for misfeasance as he was not a decision-maker.

Misfeasance in public office is abuse of power, for example when Khalid stated that Kugan’s death was due to fluid in lungs, and did not retract his statement following the second post-mortem report, explained Kugan’s family counsel Sivarasa Rasiah.

The KL High Court judge, Sivarasa ( second from left in photo ) said, awarded the tort of malfeasance in public office, while in this court the appellants are arguing against that.

Following today’s matter, Sivarasa has to put in his additional submission within two weeks, while the appellants ie the government and Ramesh had another two weeks to reply before the decision.

Besides Justice Ariff, the other judges were Justice Mah Weng Kwai and Justice David Wong Dak Wah.

At the KL High Court, Justice VT Singham awarded Kugan’s mother more than RM801,000 in damages that included malfeasance in public office.