Monday November 23, 2009
Ministry seeks amendments to make direct prosecution valid
By SHAILA KOSHY and LESTER KONG
PETALING JAYA: The Local Government and Housing Ministry is amending three Acts governing local councils to enable them to directly charge offenders for petty crimes in court.
“The three are the Local Government Act 1976 (LGA), the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 and the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007,” said Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha.
“The ministry will amend these three Acts to make direct prosecution valid without having to go through the Public Prosecutor,” he told The Star yesterday.
“We are in the process now. We are well aware of this case.”
Kong was commenting on the front-page report in Sunday Star on the Temerloh High Court ruling that Section 120 of the LGA, which the Temerloh Municipal Council used to prosecute mini-market operator Subramaniam Gopal for operating his business without a licence, was ultra vires the Federal Constitution as that power was vested only with the Attorney-General.
Kong said that if a case was not brought to the Public Prosecutor, who is also the Attorney-General, and the local authorities initiated prosecution on their own, the accused could challenge the validity of the prosecution.
“But this does not mean that people can simply throw away their parking summonses because they will be prosecuted otherwise,” he warned.
Lawyer Derek Fernandez agreed, cautioning that a warrant of arrest could be issued when the case comes up and the person is not present in court.
“They should engage a lawyer or write in to the local authority citing the above case and state that the summons is wrongly issued and they won’t pay; this is a safer course of action than just ignoring it.”
Fernandez added that the Chief Justice should make the courts aware of the decision so such summonses won’t be issued in the future and to cancel old ones not prosecuted.
In George Town, state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow said the court ruling was “another blow to the local authority”, which was already facing challenges with regard to haphazard parking and dirty eateries, reports WINNIE YEOH.
He said the council’s efforts to tackle traffic congestion was already hampered because cars parked 10m from the council’s parking lot came under police jurisdiction and not the council.
“The power given to the local authority is very restricted and limited,” he said after flagging off a charity walk at the Esplanade yesterday.
Chow, who is the chairman of the state Local Government and Traffic Management Committee, added that the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) could not even shut down dirty eateries because only the state health department had the right to do so.
While urging the public not to be “delighted” with the ruling, he said he would “direct the MPPP to take note of the judicial pronouncement.”
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