Apex court bins widow's second bid over husband's death in custody

A widow failed in her second legal bid to secure compensation from the police and government over the custodial death of her husband 11 years ago.

A Federal Court bench chaired by P Nallini this morning denied leave for R Kaliamah to commence her appeal, ruling that the widow already previously mounted a similar unsuccessful legal action.

“This is an uphill task I am afraid.

“This is a very noble cause that you took up, but our hands are tied (by the legal principle of res judicata or a similar action cannot be heard by the court),” said Nallini.

She was speaking on behalf of bench member judges Nordin Hassan and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Kaliamah’s husband Karuna Nithi was arrested on May 28, 2013, and was detained at Tampin, Negeri Sembilan.

A few days later on June 1, he was found dead with 49 fresh injuries on his body.

Following an inquest, Kaliamah filed the initial lawsuit at the Seremban High Court on Jan 25, 2018, against the authorities over alleged negligence and assault.

However, the police and government succeeded in obtaining a court order to strike out this earlier suit, on the grounds that it was time-barred by Section 2(a) of the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 (Papa).

The civil court then ruled that Kaliamah should have filed her suit on or before June 1, 2016.

She and her children, K Yugesh Varan and Kisho Kumar then filed the second suit in February 2021, seeking a declaration that the police had contravened the deceased’s fundamental rights under Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution.

The plaintiffs were also seeking a court declaration that Section 2(a) of Papa was unconstitutional.

They wanted the court to nullify the limitation period set out in Papa or modify it from 36 to 72 months.

Lawyer T Manoharan appeared for the deceased’s family.

Senior federal counsel Donald Joseph Franklin and federal counsel Nurul Farhana Khalid acted for the police and the government.

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