‘In the interests of justice’ as the new test to exclude relevant evidence in Singapore
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| Author | Chen Siyuan |
| DOI | 10.1177/1365712714566374 |
| Published date | 01 January 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Case Note
‘In the interests of justice’
as the new test to exclude
relevant evidence in
Singapore: ANB vANC [2014]
SGHC 172; Wan Lai Ting vKea
Kah Kim [2014] SGHC 180
Chen Siyuan
Singapore Management University, Singapore
Keywords
Indian Evidence Act of 1872, exclusionary discretion, interests of justice, probative value and
prejudicial effect, Singapore
Background
In 2012, Singapore’s venerable Evidence Act (EA),
1
which is based on Stephen’s Indian Evidence Act of
1872, underwent major amendments for only the third time in 120 years.
2
Previously, conflicting case
law had created long-standing confusion as to whether the Singapore courts possessed any discretion to
exclude evidence even when was found relevant under the EA.
3
The main reason driving this jurispru-
dential inconsistency was that while the relevancy provisions in the EA were meant to provide exhaus-
tive definitions of admissibility, Stephen’s then-revolutionary ‘inclusionary’ approach to relevance was
simply at odds with modern conceptions of relevance and modern litigation practice.
4
Thus, more often
than not, the Singapore courts would refer to the common law rules of evidence rather than the EA.
5
The dust began to settle in 2008, when the Court of Appeal (the apex court in Singapore) affirmed in
Lee Chez Kee vPublic Prosecutor that ‘apart from the confines of the EA, there is no residual discretion
Corresponding author:
Chen Siyuan, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Email: siyuanchen@smu.edu.sg
1. Chapter 97, rev. ed. 1997.
2. Pinsler (2013a: 23).
3. Siyuan (2012: 399–403).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid. at 400.
The International Journalof
Evidence & Proof
2015, Vol. 19(1) 67–72
ªThe Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1365712714566374
epj.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial