About the project

The Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee considered whether law reform was desirable to rationalise legislation relating to the leave to appeal. It made the following recommendations:

• Amendments to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Chapter 322, 1999 Revised Edition; now the 2007 Revised Edition) (‘SCJA’) were necessary to clarify the respective monetary thresholds for appeals without leave, and the prohibition on appeals against orders of the High Court giving unconditional leave to defend or setting aside unconditionally a default judgment. Moreover, a corresponding prohibition should be imposed on appeals against similar orders of the Subordinate Courts.
• The making of further arguments under section 34(1)(c) of the SCJA should not be mandatory, but should be at the option of the parties and the judge.

Project status: Completed

• The report was published in October 2008.
• The report was considered and some of the Committee’s recommendations adopted by Parliament in the Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Act 2010 (No 30 of 2010), which was passed on 18 October 2010 and came into force on 1 January 2011.
• The report has been cited in the following court judgments:
  • Dorsey James Michael v World Sport Group Pte Ltd [2013] SGCA 31, [2013] 3 Singapore Law Reports [SLR] 354 at paragraphs 23 and 31, Court of Appeal.
  • Fong Khim Ling (administrator of the estate of Fong Ching Pau Lloyd, deceased) v Tan Teck Ann [2014] SGCA 11, [2014] 2 SLR 659 at paragraph 19, Court of Appeal.
  • Eqita Insurance Bhd v Lim Teong Thye David [2014] SGHC 211, [2014] 4 SLR 1345 at paragraph 33, High Court, the Court referring to the report to interpret section 21(1)(a) of the SCJA.
  • Comptroller of Income Tax v ARW (Attorney-General, intervener) [2017] SGHC 180 at paragraph 107, High Court; and ARW v Comptroller of Income Tax [2018] SGCA 85, [2019] 1 SLR 499 at paragraph 80, Court of Appeal.
• The report was also referred to in an article by Teo Guan Siew entitled “Recent Amendments to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act and the Subordinate Courts Act”, Singapore Law Gazette (January 2011) (archived here) at footnote 1.

Areas of law

◾ Civil procedure

Click on the image above to view the report

Last updated 6 June 2019